The Elastic Wolf Vixens of Jasper Park
by Chaoticlover
Summary: Candy and Sweets get the same Elasticity Powers as Kate and Lilly and they each have plans on how to use their new found powers.
1. New Elastic Wolves

Chapter 1 - New Elastic Wolves

It had been 2 months since the pack moved back to the old territory, and, gladly, they hadn't seen or sniffed any human during this time. Since this territory had a lot more live prey for the wolves, and it wasn't as big or dangerous as the bears or lone moose they had been forced to hunt back at the emergency territory, Kate and Lilly had a lot more time to train their daughters, the four youngsters being now a lot more skilled and, in fact, the only difference between them and their mothers was the obvious experience and strength ones. Also, since the male pups were now at pretty much the same strength level as even the pack's bulkiest male wolves, Kate and Lilly assisted Humphrey and Garth in their training as well, due to the elastic females being the only ones with a superior strength and speed level thanks to their morphing abilities.

Despite how nice life was going so far, the wolves still were wary about the humans' possible return. They knew Dr Tabias really meant it when saying he wasn't intending to return, but they also knew the man and his 'pack leaders' had invested lots of time and resources in their experiments, so it was always possible that Dr Tabias was forced to change his mind and get back to, again, try catching the wolves, or that some other human got that assignment. All the wolves started taking surveillance shifts on a regular basis, just in case.

The wolves weren't that wrong. During this time, Dr Tabias had been working on perfecting his formulas, this time without using animals; of course, he wasn't doing this out of kindness but due to his previous, terrifying experience with the elastic wolves. He definitely didn't want to create another animal that might eventually turn against its masters. Of course, without test subjects, his research wasn't advancing as fast as before.

"Well... this batch must be even stronger than the previous one." Dr Tabias thought out loud while finishing preparing some vials with his 'perfected' formula. "The effect should be almost immediate... but the test subject would still need to remain still for a prolonged period of time so the formula can change about every cell of its body..."

"That shouldn't be hard with a human volunteer, Doctor..." One of his assistants told him, "the problem is finding someone crazy enough to volunteer... and any guy crazy enough to agree to have a super formula tested on him without previous animal experimentation, isn't mentally fit to get superpowers."

"I have to agree with you on that one." Tabias groaned. It was bad enough when the formula could create intelligent wolves who could turn against humans in self defense, but giving the formula to a mad man, someone who could use the powers to become a super criminal, was pure insanity. And, as the assistant pointed out, no sane man would agree to become a human guinea pig for an untested formula.

"Put these in the fridge. I'll go talk with the administrators in the morning and see if we can find a person brave enough to try the formula... Where's a Steve Rogers when you need one?" Tabias sighed while his assistant obeyed. When the assistant went to the fridge, however, he froze (no pun intended) on the spot.

"Doctor... we prepared another batch yesterday, right?"

"Yes, we did... and I've told you, no drinking alcohol before coming to work. Your memory is failing."

"No, Doctor, you don't understand... we prepared 10 vials last night... and now there's only 5 of them!"

"WHAT?" Tabias practically jumped on his way to the fridge. His assistant was right; there were only 5 vials left from the batch they had prepared the previous day. Tabias had used one of those vials as a base to work on the batch he had just finished, meaning there were 4 vials missing, and, even if small, each one had enough formula to transform (if working) at least 3 test subjects.

"Alert security. I'll check out if there's anything else missing." The scientist told his assistant, both men rushing while doing as said. Tabias paled when noticing some of his other vials were missing too.

"Wolf pheromones..." Tabias then dashed to the locker where he kept the animal tranquilizers; even if not using animals for his experiments for the time being, this situation could change in the future, so he kept some tranquilizer darts and rifles, just in case. With a quick look, he noticed he was now one rifle short, and a full box of tranquilizers was gone; more precisely, the tranquilizers with the right size and dosage to dominate an adult wolf.

A few days later, back at the forest, the whole pack was watching the elastic youngsters and their brothers doing some stunts they had been practicing. The whole pack, except Candy and Sweets, who had offered themselves to do guard duty during this performance.

"Ugh. Can you believe everyone is still drooling over those pups?" Sweets groaned as they walked around the territory.

"Well, they have super powers. It's quite great they have those powers because that makes our pack much stronger..." Candy got interrupted by Sweets.

"I know, but it's not fair! You and I are Omegas, and we'll likely remain like this through our whole lives... but those pups, just because of their powers, are already destined to be the strongest alphas ever... and just because their mothers were dumb enough to let themselves be captured by a human wacko." Sweets frowned. "I mean, just look at Lilly and Humphrey... as if they weren't already 'promoted' enough thanks to their mates being alphas, they got another level boost out of her getting powers and him being the mate of a super wolf!"

Candy sighed. Even if she wasn't as open as Sweets to express her ideas, she was definitely as upset as her friend. An Omega had to work really hard if he or she ever planned to become an important pack member, but it seemed dumb luck had favorited these pups just like it did with their parents.

"Really... what does it take for a wolf to become important? Lots of hard work, an amazing cunning, or just the dumb luck of being in the right place at the right time?" Sweets sighed as well.

In a perfect cue, Sweets felt an acute pain in her neck. When she yelped, Candy stopped walking to see if she was fine, but then she felt a similar pain at her side. Both wolves mentally kicked themselves for being so distracted over their chat and forgetting to do their surveillance job correctly. Both females soon felt extremely tired, as if they hadn't slept in days; Sweets fell down first, and Candy barely had any time to see the dart on her friend's neck before falling asleep herself.

After a few seconds, a man in a hunter outfit emerged from his hideout, and went to check out the wolves, removing the darts from their bodies. The man grinned before taking out a pair of syringes; even if there was already a good dose of the substance (mixed with the tranquilizer) in the wolves' bodies, he decided to apply a second dose, this one mixed with another chemical. Then, he took something out from a large bag and applied it to the sleeping females.

"They'll wake up in 3 hours." The man thought out loud before going back to his hiding place, in case another wolf (probably one of the super powered ones) appeared to check on his/her pack members. The guy then took out his binoculars to look at the sleeping creatures; even if knowing they'd be out for hours, he didn't dare missing a single moment.

"And so, the experiment starts. Science waits for no man... or animal." He grinned evilly while taking some notes for his research. No matter if this worked or not, it would definitely be worthy of watching.

Candy and Sweets didn't wake up for almost 3 hours. Candy did at first, having quite a headache, and she thought she was still asleep when realizing she was wearing some sort of clothing, similar to Kate and Lilly's outfits, but this one had blue tones (most of it light, and dark in the boots, gloves and belt).

"Oh, great... I'm having the dream again..." Out of envy on Kate and Lilly, Candy had dreamed about having elastic powers herself more than once. However, when realizing Sweets, sleeping next to her, was wearing a similar outfit (but with reversed blue patterns), and that both of them had their distinctive wolf scent mixed with human's, Candy realized this was no dream at all. Some human had made them to sleep, most probably by using a tranquilizer dart (Candy was just slightly relieved that it was a tranquilizer dart and not a bullet), and dressed them up.

"Sweets, wake up! Sweets!" Candy, fully awake, started shaking the sleeping wolf... and stopped when realizing she was using her front paws exactly as human hands. "H-how I'm doing this?"

Sweets woke up at that moment, still a bit dizzy, but woke up instantly when feeling human hands holding her; by instinct, she thought it was a human trying to catch her.

"LET ME GO, YOU ABUSIVE..."

"Sweets, stop, it's me, Candy!" Candy moved few steps back, since Sweets looked ready to bite her in (for Sweets) self defense.

"Candy? What the... hey, why are you dressed like that? Why are you dressed, period?" Sweets said, pretty puzzled, and gasped when realizing she was wearing a similar suit. "No way..."

"Yes way!" Candy was almost yelling at this point. "And look at my hands... I mean... I have hands!"

"Y-you... I... me... oh my..." Sweets was almost fainting but didn't do it because Candy was holding her again.

"Don't you dare to faint right now! I need you to stay with me so I don't faint myself!"

"Y-yes, you're right... sorry..." Sweets took some deep breaths to cool herself down. "We... I remember... someone shot you with a dart... and then I felt this pain... I got shot too, right?"

"And whoever did it, dressed us up." Candy said while giving a closer look to the outfits. They didn't just look like Kate and Lilly's, but they smelled the same.

"It's the same material... so... whoever shot the darts, surely worked at that lab where Kate and Lilly got their powers." Candy guessed.

"Then, why are we still here? Those humans captured animals and then took them to the lab. Don't tell me they now experiment on the animals here in the forest." Sweets frowned.

Both wolves stared at each other and then got hit by realization.

"They really did it! Someone injected us some of that sciency thing... that's why I can morph my paws into hands!" Candy said before looking back at her hands, and then, by doing a conscious effort, changed them back to normal wolf paws.

Sweets then looked at her own paws, and by focusing a bit, she stretched the fingers until they were as long as her full body.

Candy then thought for a moment before taking a deep breath, inflating her cheeks more than 10 times their normal size. When expelling the air, she got a sly grin.

"Mmm... so... if we can do that..." Candy took another breath, much deeper than the previous one... and didn't stop until her whole body was completely inflated. Sweets looked in awe how Candy started elevating up in the air until, fearing she would float away, she grabbed Candy with her super long fingers, stretching her arms as well to reach her, and then pulled her back to earth.

"Heh... thanks, Sweets... I thought I'd go up, up and away." The inflated wolf talked in a very deep voice, losing a bit of air in the process. Candy then expelled out the rest of the air but, due to being a lot more than before, she was almost sent flying, and only the fact Sweets was holding her prevented this from happening.

"You're welcome." Sweets said before getting her own thoughtful expression, and then she started morphing her whole body. It took her a couple of minutes, but eventually, Candy grinned at how well she had achieved the ball shape, one of Kate and Lilly's most common ones. Candy then got back to having human hands to manipulate the ball, and soon she was bouncing, throwing and tossing Sweets around.

At his hiding spot, the scientist grinned. This was working just perfectly; the animals proved being smart enough to realize they had powers now, and had the initiative to practice several shapes right away.

"And this is just the shape-shifting and elasticity's part of my experiment. Can't wait to see them discovering their other skills." The man smirked before going to taking notes, not losing sight of the wolves for a single moment.

Candy and Sweets found their running had increased notably as well, since they now had longer steps and their paws had a 'bouncy' effect, that made them to move faster with less effort.

"Heh, can't wait to see everyone's expression when we arrive." Candy grinned, enjoying the quick and light pace, that allowed them to move much faster than usual and still being able to carry a conversation without panting or missing details.

"Maybe now you and I will be considered the pack's best looking females." Sweets commented. "After all, with Kate and Lilly being taken, and mothers too, the other males can't do anything but watch from afar... You think the alphas will actually notice us?"

"Sweets, we have super powers now; they'd need to be blinder than moles to not notice us!" Candy suddenly stopped and stretched her arm to grab Sweets by her tail, since the other female hadn't stopped moving and at this pace she only needed a couple of seconds to get a considerable distance between Candy and herself. "In fact, I think I have an idea."

"Does it involve letting go of my tail?" Sweets frowned a bit, since Candy's human-like hand was still holding her tail, and, being an elastic tail, the pull had stretched it over 10 feet.

"Oh, you're gonna love this." Candy ignored Sweets' tone yet released the tail while explaining herself. "If we have the same powers as Kate and Lilly, why not use them to improve our looks? We are already gorgeous, so imagine ourselves with a little... heh... 'plastic' surgery."

Sweets got her tail back to normal and then pondered on Candy's interesting (and puny) suggestion.

"I don't know... even if we can shape - shift like you say, it might be hard to keep those looks for long. I once heard Kate commenting that keeping up a form for a long time is pretty much like tensing your muscles; they can keep up with a shape-shift for a while because they're very strong and have lots of resistance, but even those two need to get back to normal after a while."

"I know, but that doesn't mean we can keep a super attractive look in public, and then go back to our still-gorgeous-yet-not-super-gorgeous selves in private, when nobody is looking." Candy grinned. She had always liked her physical appearance, but even the vainest wolf would admit to wanting to improve a particular part of his/her looks at times, and now she and Sweets had a way to do it at will at any time they wanted.

Sweets finally agreed on Candy's idea, and they both started modeling each other, literally, by making their bodies as soft as wet clay and allowing the other female to re-shape the body into a much more attractive look. Since they were still rookies at this, Candy and Sweets realized they wouldn't be able to shape-shift into a super gorgeous body without this help, especially without clear enough water or some surface that could work like a mirror.

After about one hour of live-sculpting each other's body, Candy and Sweets were finally happy with the results, and gave their bodies a more firm consistence instead of the soft one. Now they both looked a lot more stylized and with longer limbs and muzzles, plus looking generally more elegant and imposing; it was the kind of look that would make any male wolf to freeze on the spot and drool at them.

The two females finally made their way back home, this time walking instead of running to make it easier for them to keep up these forms, but still making very long steps (as in, no less than 15 feet each) to make up for the missing time. After all, it was quite late already, and they had no doubts the rest of the pack would soon send some scouts to look after them.

The two wolves decided to surprise the rest of the pack by arriving right at the Moonlight Howl instead of going to the living quarters first, as all the sentinels did when returning in order to announce they were back home. Most of the pack was already there, Kate and Lilly in one of the main spots along with their mates; both females were using their 'sexy forms' to cuddle a little with Humphrey and Garth while waiting for the howling session to start.

"HOOOOOOWL!" A random male wolf started howling wildly.

"Hey, it's not time yet.." Kate was about to lecture this wolf for howling out of time when she realized he wasn't howling at the moon but at two females that looked just as drop-dead-sexy as Lilly and herself. The other wolves turned around to see them, and all of them gasped, some due to their incredible sexiness, and the others due to recognizing them.

"Candy? Sweets?" Lilly wide opened her eyes (to watermelon size, showing how impressed she was) and then was speechless for a few moments before getting her eyes back to normal and approaching the duo. "What... I mean... wow, you gals look great, but... you two... too?"

"If you are trying to say that we have elastic powers too, yes, we do." Candy grinned while posing like a pedigree dog to show off her new attractive body. "What was your first clue?"

"Uh... how much you two changed, the suits, the human scent on both of you..." Lilly started talking before Kate tapped her shoulder.

"That was a sarcastic question, Lilly." Kate said before looking back at Candy and Sweets. "Now, seriously, how this happened? A scientist captured the both of you?"

"It seems so... but we didn't get caged or anything. One moment we were walking around, and then were fast asleep, and by the time we woke up, we were like this." Sweets shrugged. "Not that we mind. Heh, maybe those humans feel guilty over torturing us at their labs and now they're giving us powers for free."

Kate didn't believe the later option; it was very suspicious, and she thought that the most possible reason was that Dr Tabias had invented some potion that worked much faster than the previous one, and therefore it didn't need to be administered at a lab under heavy supervision. Kate was also very upset about the humans not respecting their deal.

"We'll need to pay Dr Tabias a visit... in the meantime, you two, well, practice your powers but don't try to overuse them until we know there's no side effect." Kate frowned at the duo. "And before you argue with me, let me remind you the reason Dr Tabias kept experimenting with wolves and other animals is because he didn't dare testing the formulas on humans due to their strong immune systems resisting the effects, and that many of the first animal test subjects didn't survive!"

Sweets rolled her eyes, obviously not caring about Kate's explanation, but Candy looked honestly concerned. After all, even if she and Sweets disliked Kate, Candy couldn't deny Kate was the obvious expert when it came to dealing with the humans.

"O-okay, guess you are right this time, Kate." Candy agreed with the alpha, making Sweets frown a bit but soon she smiled as well. If the other super wolves were leaving to see this scientist, she and Candy would have a lot of time to start getting the other wolves' admiration.

Kate and Lilly had a quick meeting with the other wolves to organize themselves; of course, this meant Kate made most of the plan while Lilly just gave her occassional opinion. It was decided that, besides the most experienced elastic females, only Casey and Austin would go with them to see Dr Tabias, to avoid risking non-powered wolves. After a quick 'see you' kiss to their mates, and some advice to their offspring, Kate, Lilly and the Invisible Couple were on their way, Kate and Lilly morphing into their fastest, strongest shapes so they could carry Casey and Austin and arrive faster at the labs.

"Well, while we wait for them to return... I'm hungry." Sweets said out-loud while giving a sly, seductive smile to several wolves. "Can any of you boys give me something to eat?"

Almost immediately, all the male wolves rushed to get Sweets something to eat, many of them having a lovesick puppy face, while the female wolves, despite not liking this reaction, found themselves incapable of arguing or getting angry with Sweets, despite she and Candy still being in their sexy forms and therefore, very obviously, using this attractive form to get whatever they wanted. Candy gave them a very puzzled look; she knew males would do anything for a pretty face, but she wasn't expecting the females to accept it so easily; Sweets noticed it as well, and smirked, still not realizing the 'other' ability they had gained, but already suspecting she and Candy had received a lot more than Kate and Lilly.

Later that night, Dr Tabias was finishing some paperwork in his lab. The man looked particularly distressed, having already reported what had happened, and fearing the consequences of this robbery. Before he could finish with the last documents, he heard some noises from the corridor; when he went to see what was going on, he found several guards unconscious, and when he went to check on them, he yelped in fear when 2 wolves appeared from thin air, growling at him. He realized they were the animals that got the Mega Stealth Capacity Formula, aka Invisibility Power.

Before Tabias could take out a tranquilizer gun he always carried since the incident at the forest, he heard a rubber stretching noise he was very familiar with, and found his hand trapped by a white wolf's paw. Then, jumping from an air vent, the other elastic female pounced on him and she morphed into her werewolf-like shape, both to be very intimidating and to see Dr Tabias face-to-face.

"D-don't hurt me..." The scientist gulped while Lilly got rid of the gun, and Casey and Austin, back to invisibility, went to look around to handle any coming human.

"You didn't respect our deal." Kate, morphing into her anthro form (something that made her throat change to resemble a human's), spoke to the man in a very serious tone. Lilly morphed as well, growling a bit at him for extra intimidation.

"You were supposed to stay out of the forest and stop messing with us." Lilly frowned while moving a long-clawed paw next to his face.

"I did respect our deal... whatever you think I did... I didn't do it." Tabias, paling in fear, tried to sound convincing. Even if he was telling the truth, he didn't know if the wolves would believe him.

"Right, because any human can give superpowers to any animal, huh? Oh, and that was sarcasm." Lilly growled a bit louder this time.

"What do you want from me?"

"We want the truth." Kate grabbed Tabias by the collar and lifted him with just one hand, as if he weighed nothing. "Did you or any of your wacko friends experiment on animals again?"

"No, no, I swear... we hadn't been experimenting on live animals since you two ambushed me..." Tabias noticed the angry glares and changed his words..." I mean, since you two defended from my men and myself... and we had limited our research to test tubes and experimentation on cell samples, not with living animals.

Against their best judgement, Kate and Lilly actually believed him, trusting their animal instincts and realizing Tabias wasn't making up this story.

"Then why did two members of our pack gain the same powers as our?" Lilly asked, a bit more relaxed yet still very serious.

"Two... oh, my... he didn't..." Noticing the wolves were looking angry again, Tabias started explaining. "We recently lost some of our formula... more precisely, the vials where we keep the new, supposedly improved samples... and when I say we 'lost them', I mean someone stole them..."

Kate and Lilly nodded at each other and then Kate dropped Tabias.

"Start explaining yourself. And don't forget any detail." Kate frowned at the man, who sighed and started telling them everything he knew about this robbery.

Back with the pack, Candy and Sweets were having a VERY amused time. Practically every wolf was attentive to their every whim, and when they started practicing their elastic and shape-shifting powers, there was general awe coming from the group, despite the fact they all had seen these same tricks, and much better done, with Kate and Lilly.

"It's amazing... they all admire us!" Candy whispered at Sweets.

"I know. They finally realize how much we really worth." Sweets, grinning, replied in the same low tone. Candy then noticed Kate and Lilly's pups watching with pretty much the same interest as everyone else, something that surprised Candy since, after all, they had these very same powers and were already very experienced at their use.

"Hey, how about we ask the little ones to help us with the show? They know more than us and can help make this better." Candy whispered again.

"Mmm... good thinking; nothing like having someone improving your own image." Sweets smirked, obviously not caring about the youngsters' feelings. Candy didn't like this that much; even if she could be very vain at times, she actually had a soft spot for the pack's little ones.

"Girls, why don't you come here and show us more of those tricks of yours?" Sweets said to the young elastic females, all of them instantly beaming and joining the elder females while the rest of the pack encouraged them.

"Okay, just mimic me, okay?" Celenia smiled at Candy and Sweets before she stretched her whole body, surprising everyone as now each leg was longer than the largest trees around, and her torso was even longer. Candy and Sweets mimicked her, and soon Celenia was showing them how to coordinate their moves when having such long limbs; it wasn't easy since, at this size, it wasn't easy to see what the body was touching at all times, and in fact Candy and Sweets couldn't help but hit some wolves by accident (not that they cared, despite not being light hits). Celenia showed them how to solve this problem by stretching the neck , lifting it up, and moving it so they could always keep an eye on the whole body.

"Whoa... why don't you get dizzy?" Sweets groaned, as the neck moves were starting to affect her balance.

"Heh, who says I don't?" Celenia chuckled before morphing back to normal. "Its practice, that's all. After a while, you won't feel the effects."

When Candy and Sweets returned to normal, and realized their little vertigo wasn't going to make them puke, they told the girls to continue with the lessons. Meadow got in front of them and, in less than 2 seconds, morphed perfectly into a bear.

"Wow... but, I don't want to look like a bear." Candy said to the now much bigger wolf-turned-bear.

"It can come in handy to scare away some other animal. After all, a lone bear is much scarier than a lone wolf." Meadow said, making Candy and Sweets to realize how useful this transformation could be.

It took them some effort, and some of their transformations were plain ugly (the other wolves didn't mind and even praised them), but they finally got to transform into bears. Meadow, smiling, showed them how to move; Candy and Sweets realized that, as bears, their moves were much less graceful and agile, but their strength increased incredibly plus they could stand on their hind legs, and their claws were very useful weapons.

Meadow then showed them how to morph into kangaroos, a shape they all had seen Kate and Lilly use in the past. This was much harder than the bear, since, even if the kangaroo was a smaller animal, none of them had ever seen a live kangaroo, and only knew them from Kate and Lilly's descriptions and transformations... and they only knew the kangaroos from pictures they saw at the laboratory. Meadow, personally, enjoyed this transformation a lot, since the kangaroo's usual way of moving, by jumping and bouncing, was pretty much fit for an elastic being. Again, Candy and Sweets took some time to get it right, but they soon started bouncing around as kangaroos... even if their kangaroo form wasn't as good as Meadow's; then again, with nobody really knowing a live kangaroo, they couldn't actually tell how close they were to the real thing.

"Good. You two are getting really great with the transformations." Meadow praised both Candy and Sweets. "Now... to relax and have fun after these lessons... I'll show you how to morph into a form you can use for both fighting and playing."

Meadow used the same methods Kate and Lilly used when teaching her and the others; basically, after a very hard lesson, they'd finish with a simple, nice one, that would turn the whole thing into a playful meeting. Meadow changed into a ball and told Candy and Sweets to do the same; they were a bit reluctant since the ball shape 'would make them look fat', but soon found themselves enjoying it a lot, especially when the rest of the pack started playing with them.

"Oh, this is so good!" Candy giggled as some pups bounced and chased her. Sweets, despite her usual snobbish ways, was also having a great time even if not saying it out loud.

"_No wonder Kate and Lilly seem to enjoy their powers so much; they're fun to use!" _

Unknown to everyone else, this little 'party' was distracting everyone too much; even the watchers were very distracted... so much, that none noticed a certain man setting up small surveillance cameras at some trees, camouflaging them properly so nobody could spot them later when not distracted; the cameras were also completely scent-free, and the mad scientist was using new clothing and shoes that didn't have his own scent yet.

"_The data I'll get will be priceless. And once I learn enough about the wolves and how they use their powers... I'll know enough to capture them all."_


	2. Elastic Dating 1

Chapter 2 - Elastic Dating 1

Dr Tabias took Kate and Lilly back to his lab, the two wolves telling their invisible companions to stay as guards in case other humans arrived. Also, since Kate was doing most of the interrogating, she asked Lilly to keep an eye on Dr Tabias at all times, in case the scientist betrayed them and used some weapon on them while Kate was distracted with the questions and answers' session she was about to start.

"Okay, Tabias, start talking and don't use too many... 'mumbo jumbo' sciency talk, as my mate would call it, since I wouldn't understand it, but don't be condescending either. I am no scientist but I'm no fool either." Kate said in a very serious tone. Since, after all, she was still a wild animal, without a college education, it was obvious she wouldn't get many of Tabias' more complex words, but she still was a smart creature that had spent enough time in the lab to catch up some basic knowledge; Tabias nodded in agreement and started.

"As you already know... I promised I'd stop my research on animals... but my chiefs... my 'alphas', as you would call them... they still demanded me to continue, so I went for something in the middle; I had been doing my research on animal cell samples instead of still living beings. It's more... civilized and not dangerous for animals, but it's also a bit of a slow procedure, since I can't fully test the effects on a real animal, or in a person, if I don't experiment it on a live creature."

"Why none of your pack's members had volunteered to be test subjects? Or why your pack's leaders hadn't ordered someone to do it?" Kate asked.

"Well, there are several issues about that." Tabias continued. "First of all, because our Immune Systems, the part of your body that protects it from diseases, prevented my formula from taking effect 'cause our white blood cells kept absorbing it... basically, the white cells attack any strange substance that enters your body, and in this case, the white cells think the formula is a disease, so they attack, absorb and destroy it before it can affect the rest of the body."

"Pretty much like a group of sentinels protecting the pack's territory." Lilly nodded, understanding the basic concept.

"Yes, you can say that. For some reason, my formula works much better on animals than in humans, probably due to evolution or maybe because you animals have higher metabolisms... it means, your body works faster than ours... so your body absorbs the formula much faster than the white cells can eliminate it, and therefore it affects you faster and better than it does with humans." Tabias sighed. "In order to make the formula effective on humans, I needed to accelerate a human's metabolism before trying to make him/her take the formula, and well, that comes with another set of risks... and that's another reason we hadn't tested it on humans. We normally test our things on animals at first, and if it works, we then move to human experimentation; and since I'm no longer working with live animals, this also slows down the experimentation on human beings. Plus, being this risky, it's not easy to find a human brave or foolish enough to volunteer taking it."

"But you mentioned something about your Formula being improved" Kate pointed out.

"Yes; this new formula works precisely on the whole 'body absorbing it faster' angle; the new batch of formula acts a lot faster than the previous one, so it might allow me to, finally, create a potion that the human body can absorb and assimilate before the immune system gets rid of it. And, if this formula is quick enough to affect a human..."

"Then a wolf would get transformed by it much faster than with the old formula." Lilly reasoned.

"Especially if used in a high dosage." Tabias groaned. "And last night, I noticed someone had stolen enough of my new formula to affect at least 4 or 5 test subjects... no idea how fast will it work if the whole dosage is used on just one or two animals."

"Well two of our pack mates were injected with some of your improved formula." Kate frowned.

"I don't think it was the WHOLE dosage. If I were the thief, I'd try to reserve some of the formula for later experimentation.. still, if he only targeted two of your friends, each one could have been injected with at least twice the necessary dose, and that would be enough for an almost instant effect." Tabias told her.

"And you said you know who might be the burglar?" Kate asked him.

"Yes... one of my assistants; we fired him..."

"YOU FIRED HIM? NO WONDER HE'S ANGRY!" Lilly gasped. "Setting him on fire..."

"No, no, when I say we 'fired' him, I mean... we evicted him from here... basically, he's no longer allowed to work here." Dr Tabias explained to the white wolf.

"Oh... why didn't you say that before?" Lilly frowned. "You humans don't know how to speak clearly or what?"

Tabias sighed at the irony of a talking animal accusing a human of not speaking properly and turned back at Kate, who now was back to her thoughtful expression.

"Okay, you are coming with us to our territory; I'd prefer Lilly and I handling this ourselves, but we're no scientists and we might need your abilities to solve this whole ordeal." Kate then poked Tabias' chest, in a very firm way. "But if you try anything funny, and I don't mean 'funny Hah-Hah', we'll make sure you never be able to hold any of your lab stuff again, even if we need to break every bone in your arms and hands."

Tabias gulped at this; he was certainly scared about this, as he was basically getting kidnapped by the wolves, but at the same time, he knew that, even if this particular problem wasn't his fault, it still was his responsibility, being his formula, taken from his lab, by one of his old assistants. Plus, Tabias knew that it was quite important to recover as much of the formula as possible plus stopping this ex-employee before he could continue with his experiments or sell the formula to another government. '

"Y-yes... no problem... just... let me write a note for my employers so they know I'm not in danger or anything like that... and then grab some stuff from the lab."

Kate and Lilly nodded at this, realizing these were reasonable requests; Tabias would need lab stuff to check out Candy and Sweets and make sure this formula had no dangerous side effects, something none of them knew at the time, plus he had to make sure no other human would go to the forest looking for him.

Meanwhile, Candy and Sweets were having a lot of fun with their elastic powers, realizing all the potential uses of them. Besides making them two of the pack's most powerful members, it also made them among the most useful, plus they were finding out how cool it was to spend time with Kate and Lilly's pups, something Candy and Sweets had mostly avoided in the past.

"Now, we're practicing with the super senses." Meadow explained them while making her eyes larger than an owl's. "This trick will improve your eyesight a lot; especially if you combine it with your neck-stretching, since it allows you to see at every direction."

Candy and Sweets practiced the trick; it seemed to be an easy one, but by getting these big eyes, they also became sensitive to light, so they had to use it wisely and avoid practicing it at noon. The trick became even more complicated when, besides enlarging the eyes, they also elongated them, a trick that would be useful when it wasn't possible to elongate the neck.

"Good. Now, your ears." Meadow elongated her left ear until it looked like a bat's. "This will help you hear even better; the only caution here is that the ones around you must talk in a low voice to avoid hurting your ears."

Candy and Sweets did this trick quite well; Sweets returned her ears to normal almost immediately since she was getting a slight headache from being able to hear even the lightest noise (like, a group of ants fighting a grasshopper) as loud as a puma roaring next to her. Candy managed it a bit better, especially when she only enlarged one of her ears.

"Heh, this is fun. I think I just heard a caterpillar burping." Candy chuckled but then got a serious expression. "Wait... I hear someone yelling... for help..."

Meadow and Sweets did the 'giant ear trick' to confirm what Candy said, and realized she was right; Candy was already moving, using the ball transformation for extra speed.

A couple of miles away from the pack's living quarters, Hutch had fallen in a raging river when trying to hunt an otter. Usually, wolves are very good swimmers, but this time the water was just too powerful... and he was heading for a waterfall.

"Somebody, please, help me!" Hutch yelled, hoping someone could be able to hear him over the river's noise, but it would be quite hard... unless that 'someone' had bat-like hearing.

Candy arrived at the precise moment when Hutch was about to reach the waterfall. The elastic female gasped at this and, remembering what she had learned from the youngsters, elongated her whole body (torso, arms and legs) until she was forming a safety net across the river, securing her arms on a tree and her legs on a huge rock.

Hutch was caught by the 'net', and when Candy felt his body touching her torso, she tightened her leg grip and then wrapped the rest of her body around Hutch's body, retrieving herself and the male back to the shore.

"Are... are you okay?" Candy asked Hutch when they were back on land, safe and sound. She got back to her normal shape and started checking on him... and then stared at each other's eyes.

"You are an angel." Hutch said it more like a statement than as a question. Candy blushed at this.

"Not unless angels can elongate themselves." Candy couldn't help but feel a bit nervous in Hutch's presence, as he reminded her of Drew, a male she had crushed on for years.

Candy and Hutch's moment got cut by Meadow and Sweets' arrival.

"What happened?" Sweets asked, noticing the obviously soaked male and the blushing Candy.

"This angel saved my life." Hutch said to the newcomers, barely giving them a glance before giving full attention to Candy again.

"I... think you need to rest... and maybe eat something..." Candy tried to recover herself from this impression.

"Yes... anything but otter, please. I think I'm cutting semi-aquatic mammals from my diet." Hutch chuckled.

The 3 elastic females and Hutch returned to the lair, Candy trying to keep herself a bit away from Hutch to hide her blush. Of course they already knew each other, being from the same pack and all, but Hutch was usually hunting, either with the pack or by his own, while Candy did sentinel duties or stayed at the pack's main living quarters to help keep an eye on the pups... when she wasn't goofing around with Sweets, at least. Because of that, Candy and Hutch were rarely in the same place at once, and when they did, it was usually along with the rest of the pack for special occassions like when all the wolves had to move to the temporary quarters the first time the humans were searching for their escaped lab subjects. Not to mention that Candy, being an Omega, usually kept herself from watching at the higher ranked male wolves; this is why Hutch's next words impressed her.

"Uh... since you just saved me and all, maybe we can, you know, have dinner together... so I can thank you properly."

"Dinner together as in... well... eh... a d-date?" Candy was now blushing a lot... and her eyes had grown the size of a turtle's shell. Sweets noticed this and gave her friend a quick push in the shoulder, making Candy to react and get back to normal. "I... yes, sure, I'd like that."

"Great... heh, and nice trick with the eyes. It lets others see how pretty they are without needing to get too close." Hutch then quickly cleared, thinking Candy would think he was being sarcastic.

Candy simply nodded and smiled, while Meadow grinned at the exchange and Sweets rolled her eyes yet smiled as well.

"_Note to self; be careful with my facial expressions."_ Candy mental-talked to herself, realizing that, as an elastic creature, her expressions would be very extreme ones and, even if Hutch didn't seem to mind, it would still be quite surprising for others.

A couple hours later, Hutch and Candy were at The Moonlight Howl, him setting up an improvised table on a large, flat rock. Besides some deer meat and bones they had brought from the pack's common reserve, Hutch had also provided some bird eggs and gopher meat from his personal one; being an occasional lone hunter, Hutch was very good as getting small meals that wouldn't satisfy a whole pack but were great for one or two wolves.

"Mmm... this is pretty good... Can't remember the last time I ate gopher." Candy said while eating the last of the rodent.

"Glad you like it. I'm more or less good at hunting rodents; not exactly a prime steak dinner, but they make perfect snacks." Hutch smiled at her and moved his paw next to Candy, who, instinctly, moved it away. "What's wrong, Angel? You don't want me touching you?"

"I... uh.. well..." Candy was hesitant about sharing her personal issues about physical contact with Hutch, specially on a first date, but decided to be honest. "You know Drew, right?"

"Yes... we're not exactly friends, but yes, sometimes we hunt together along with the other high rank wolves." Hutch replied, getting a curious expression.

"The thing is, I used to have a crush on him... and he pretty much broke my heart... More like, he broke it, chew it, buried it until it was slightly spoiled, dug it out, and stomped on what was left." Candy sighed. "I had been avoiding looking at other wolves since then."

"I'm sorry he did that to you... but remember, I'm not him." Hutch gave her a very hearty, honest look.

"Yes... you're not him." Candy smiled at him and then, feeling in the mood, she started singing/howling, something she really liked to do when wanting to express a very deep feeling or something she couldn't easily express by just talking..

**Drew looks at me, I fake a smile so he won't see**

**That I want and I'm needing everything that we should be**

**I'll bet she's beautiful, that girl he talks about**

**And she's got everything that I have to live without**

**Drew talks to me, I laugh 'cause it's just so funny**

**And I can't even see anyone when he's with me**

**He says he's so in love, he's finally got it right,**

**I wonder if he knows he's all I think about at night**

**He's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar**

**The only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star**

**He's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do**

**Drew walks by me, can he tell that I can't breathe?**

**And there he goes, so perfectly,**

**The kind of flawless I wish I could be**

**She better hold him tight, give him all her love**

**Look in those beautiful eyes and know she's lucky 'cause**

**So I drive home alone, as I turn out the light**

**I'll put his picture down and maybe**

**Get some sleep tonight**

**He's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar**

**The only one who's got enough of me to break my heart**

**He's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do**

**He's the time taken up, but there's never enough**

**And he's all that I need to fall into.**

**Drew looks at me, I fake a smile so he won't see.**

Hutch looked at Candy in awe, amazed at the beauty of her singing voice, but also paying attention to the song's lyrics. It was obvious Drew really hurt her.

"Candy... I'm not breaking your heart like he did, but how exactly did he break your heart?" Hutch asked in a calm, sincere tone. "After all.. we're being honest with each other's feelings, so I'm guessing you were honest with Drew too."

"He fell for another girl wolf, and I couldn't be with him; he was just clueless that I exist."Candy sighed sadly. "I mean, okay, he is free to fall in love with whoever he wants, but he knew I liked him, a lot... and he just ignored me as if I were nothing. Not even a 'Hey, Candy, I'm sorry, but we can still be friends' thing."

"I see... the guy is a jerk." Hutch frowned. "Say the word and I'll shove him in front of a buffalo stampede."

"Nah, it's fine... that wouldn't solve anything." Candy grinned before changing her head into a buffalo's. "But the idea sounds fun."

"Heh, that's so good... how many shapes can you take?" Hutch asked her.

"Mmm... wanna see them?" Candy grinned while returning her head back to normal. "We can go to another place so I can show you. After all, this is mostly a romantic place, and not somewhere I can show off."

"I'd like that." Hutch smiled at this.

After finishing eating, the pair went to the river; of course, to avoid any dangerous situation, they went to a calm area of the river, without any hard, fast water currents.

"Check this out." Candy smiled while stretching her legs until they were as long as tree logs, and then started walking in the river, her paws touching the bottom and keeping the rest of her body away from the water surface.

"Hey, that is a very useful trick... I can tell I'd have loved to do that today." Hutch chuckled.

"Oh, and this is just the beginning." Candy stretched her neck to move her head right in front of Hutch's face. "Stretching is cool and all, but it's the most basic of my abilities. Look at this."

Candy, still walking on the river, morphed into a ball, allowing herself to get carried away by the current. Before Hutch could panic (obviously getting a flashback of what happened to him earlier that day), Candy stretched her tail until it was as long as a very large line that Hutch could grab. Hutch gave her a good yank and then she returned to the shore. Candy's tail then returned to normal and integrated itself to the ball shape; then, she started bouncing around Hutch before doing it over him. Hutch grinned and started bouncing Candy on his head, having a lot of fun.

"Hey, this is great. You have lots of talents." Hutch said without stopping bouncing her.

"Bounce me a bit higher so I can show you another transformation." Candy said to him. Hutch did as said and Candy started taking very deep breaths until she lost her ball shape and replaced it with her normal self but incredibly inflated, to the point she started floating over Hutch. Again, Candy stretched her tail so Hutch could get a hold in her so Candy wouldn't end floating too far away.

"Guess I had a LIGHT meal." Candy joked, losing a bit of air but taking another deep breath to replace it, so she continued floating at the same height. Also, her voice sounded deeper than usual.

"Now you're literally looking down at me." Hutch grinned.

"Oh, you have a sense of humor. Nice." Candy grinned before getting another idea. "Okay, now impulse me over the river. I'm showing you another trick."

Hutch did as she asked him, and then she returned the tail back to normal size. Then, she started expelling the air excess and, slowly, went down to the water. At that moment, Candy morphed the lower half of her body into a fish's, and started swimming around, even jumping out of the water at times like a dolphin or a salmon.

"Wow... now you're an aquatic angel." Hutch gasped in amazement.

"Technically, a mermaid... but thanks." Candy, smiling, modified her head's fur as well, getting a long hairdo, plus changing her upper body to resemble a human female (a VERY gifted human female), making herself even more similar to a real mermaid.

"Why I suddenly feel even more eager to hug you?" Hutch admitted.

"Something like this?" Candy got closer to the shore and stretched her arms to pull him into the water, and then gave him a very tight hug, still keeping her arms and hands stretched to cover him completely. Hutch smiled at this and rubbed his head on her breast and head.

Without stopping to hug him, Candy morphed her lower body into strong human-like legs, and, being close enough to the shore, started walking out of the water, carrying Hutch in her arms. Candy then morphed her body into a very muscular anthro form and put Hutch down to make a muscle pose for him.

"You like this, Handsome?" Candy flexed her muscles, showing a physical power that would make Mister Universe envious.

"Wow... you get more impressive at every moment." Hutch confessed. Candy stopped flexing but conserved her Amazonian anthro body, and approached Hutch to scratch behind his ears.

"You like it, uh?" Candy grinned when noticing his smile and his wagging tail. "You'll like this even more."

Candy started giving him a belly rub, and Hutch laid on his back, so the massage was much easier for her to apply. She then changed to a non-muscular anthro form to continue rubbing him; after all, Candy was still a rookie and conserving a muscular build was much more tiring than a non-muscular one, plus she obviously didn't need a lot of strength for this task.

"And... you say... you're not an angel? Because... Mmmmm... I'm in Heaven..." Hutch moaned in delight as she continued.

"You'll be in Heaven in a moment." Candy started morphing into her sexy canine form even if still conserving her human-like hands to continue rubbing him; she even changed her clothes so they didn't cover as much as before, allowing Candy to show more of her sexy body.

Hutch looked at her and, if she wasn't rubbing his belly at the moment, he would be on top of her right there and now.

"Oh... this is soooooo good... and kinda funny..."

"You want funny now?" Candy grinned while morphing her clothing into a clown/jester's, a transformation that she had seen Lilly adopt in the past. To make it even closer to a real clown's, Candy shaped part of the outfit into a real jester hat plus making her nose light blue colored, and bulbous.

"Hahahaha... Yeah, that's fun... whatever it is." Hutch chuckled. Like any wild wolf, he had no idea of what a clown was, but he found the transformation quite funny. It became even funnier when Candy turned back into her anthro form while still wearing the jester outfit, and started jumping and bouncing around like a wacky clown; again, something she had seen Lilly do in the past to entertain the pups.

"Kate and Lilly say this is a clown; some wacky disguise humans wear to entertain their pups." Candy admitted. "Hey, wanna see how I'd look as other species?"

"You'd look lovable as any animal." Hutch said while nodding.

Candy grinned and changed back to her normal wolf shape, and then started morphing into the kangaroo shape she had seen Kate and Lilly adopting many times in the past.

"What... wow... what kind of animal is that?" Hutch admired Candy's transformation. "It's... interesting... you still look very cute, but it's also something I'd never seen."

"It's a 'kangaroo'; you are not seeing any of these around here." Candy chuckled while jumping/bouncing around. "Basically, it's like a mix of a giant mouse, rabbit and deer. It even has a pouch in the body to carry stuff."

"Hey, very practical." Hutch admitted.

"Look at this other one. Kate and Lilly say that the domestic dogs come in many shapes and sizes, and I've seen them turning into those different kinds of dogs." Candy morphed back to normal before doing her next transformation; being a rookie, she still didn't dominate switching from one animal to the other, so she had to change back to her normal wolf form before morphing again.

"You mean, they aren't all like those dogs that human hunters travel with?" Hutch was now very surprised. Being forest animals, most of the time the only dogs they saw (whenever they saw one) were hunting dogs, meaning all of them were hounds or some similar breed.

"Yeah, it seems the dogs get different abilities from living with humans, and those abilities give them different shapes too." Candy shrugged before transforming. She made her ears longer and falling down, but now as much as a basset hound of dachshund; she narrowed her muzzle a bit, and made her fur a bit longer and fuzzier, plus getting slightly longer and thinner legs. When finishing, she looked a lot like an Irish Setter or an Afghan.

"Ooooh... not as sexy as your usual self, but still very close!" Hutch complimented her, smiling lovingly at Candy, who then gave him a very flirty face.

"Mmm... I can get even closer." Candy started rubbing her body against his side and moved her tail under his muzzle, caressing it. Unknown to Candy, she was now starting to use her pheromonal control, making herself a lot more attractive to any straight male wolf... curiously, with Hutch, it wasn't working, but that didn't stop him from seeing her sexier by the moment, probably because he already was extremely attracted to her, and she had been flirty with Hutch almost the whole time of their date, meaning his mating instincts were already working overtime, as much as his morals to keep him from pouncing on her at the spot.

"Ehem."

Candy and Hutch stopped their 'almost' making out session when hearing Sweets behind them.

"Candy, we need to talk."

"Can't you wait for a few minutes?" Candy groaned before giving Hutch a quick glance and then looking back at Sweets. "Make it two hours."

"Candy..." Sweets frowned.

"Give me a few minutes." A sighing Candy turned at Hutch. "This won't take too long."

Hutch nodded and then left, without going too far. Candy then turned, more than a little upset, back at Sweets.

"What's your problem, Sweets? This is the first date I've had since I've had my heart broken..."

"You are letting a date make you forget about our powers and what we can do with them? And I don't mean just the stretching ones!" Sweets snapped before getting a sly tone. "Think about it... we can use our abilities to rule this pack; all the male wolves will be our servants, and all the females will be our loyal followers."

"Okay, cut that." Candy frowned. "I don't want to be a queen or anything like that. I just want to have a happy life and maybe get a good mate for myself."

"You can have a super happy life as a queen, and have all the mates you want!" Sweets growled. "If you want, you can make Hutch your favorite one..."

"I don't need a favorite one; I just want Hutch and only Hutch. He's nice, handsome, sweet, and understands me." Candy frowned. "We're wolves, Sweets; we mate for life, remember?"

"Well, normal wolves have no elastic abilities, so better get used to it!"

"No, I won't Sweets. Everyone needs someone to love, and if you're smart enough, you would know you need someone to love, too." Candy snapped and then started walking away. "Sorry if I was too rough, but I wouldn't be your friend if I didn't say these thing to you."

Sweets almost growled at Candy but stopped herself. Candy had a very valid point; even if it hurt to hear this, Sweets knew that Candy cared about her and would never be mean to her on purpose. The last time Candy was this tough with her was when they were young, and Sweets was being a very big pain to all the other pups, so Candy had to snap her out of this mean attitude and actually made her to mellow a bit, at least enough to socialize with the other wolves.

"Candy... I hate when you are right... and it's because you're always right when it comes to pointing out whatever I'm doing wrong." Sweets sighed and looked down, talking to herself. As a wolf, she had a natural instinct to find a mate for life, but she hadn't been lucky at all in this aspect, and she had been very hesitant about compromising herself with any male after seeing how much Candy suffered from her heartache... but now that Candy had, apparently, found herself a good mate, Sweets' natural urges were returning with a vengeance.

Sweets looked back at the path Candy left, and sighed again. Despite their argument, Sweets couldn't help but feel happy for Candy.

"You are a lucky female, Candy. Hope I can get some luck myself."


	3. Elastic Dating 2

Chapter 3 - Elastic Dating 2

After Candy left, Sweets returned with the pack, knowing her friend would probably be out for a long while, or maybe even not return until the next day, if her date with Hutch 'worked' better than expected. At first, Sweets was tempted about using her power to get some 'fun' of her own with every single (and maybe some of the non-single ones) male in the pack, but now Candy's words were echoing in her head, and giving Sweets some resemblance of a conscience.

"_If I go after one of the taken males, that would mean another female would be losing her mate."_ Sweets frowned, not liking that idea at all. _"And if I use my power to get the single ones to love me... then how can I be sure they actually love me for real? Moral dilemmas... ugh, I hate them."_

Sweets decided to have fun with the males without using her 'irresistible attraction', but still transforming herself into her sexiest self. As expected, every single guy in the pack stared at her when she arrived, and all the available ones started asking her out.

"You guys are pathetic."

Sweets turned when hearing the rough voice; not far from the group, Cando, a short yet very tough male was frowning at his fellow males.

"Excuse us?" A random guy asked him.

"It's obvious she's only ONE female, powers and all, and you are A LOT of wolves. She can't date all of you at once, and you dorks are not making it easier for her to make a choice by drooling like a bunch of pups in front of a piece of liver." Cando replied in his usual rough yet actually logical way.

"Okay... I didn't like the 'liver' comparison, but Shorty has a point." Sweets said to the other males.

"Shorty? You have a very weird way to compliment others, Stretch." Cando groaned; he really hated when other wolves pointed out his short size.

"I wasn't complimenting you; I was agreeing with you... and who are you to call me 'Stretch'?" Sweets stretched her neck to place her face in front of Cando, frowning at him. Cando just arched an eyebrow and gave her a smug look; Sweets realized she was basically proving his point by stretching her neck.

"The powers didn't come with common sense, I see." Cando started walking away. Sweets got very upset about this, and now was very tempted to use her power on Cando.

"Excuse me, everyone, but I need to chat with Mister Short Temper." Sweets said to the other wolves while she started following Cando.

"Heh... you actually came after me? I'm honored." Cando half-joked, still conserving his sly smirk.

"You have any idea about EVERYTHING I can do with my powers?"

"Transforming yourself into a bear, pummeling me with fists the size of my head, bounce me out of the forest, embracing me until I gasp..." Cando then got a lot more serious. "I live in this pack too, in case you don't remember, Stretch; in other words, I've seen all the stuff Kate, Lilly and their pups can do."

"And despite knowing that, you're still insulting me?" Sweets groaned.

"I hadn't really insulted you, Stretch; I'm just pointing out the obvious. Not my fault I'm not a brainless moron that falls for the first pretty face he sees." Cando got a bit closer to Sweets, still frowning.

"First of all, my name is not Stretch, it's Sweets; second, I only came here because you got on my nerves and I wanted to see if you had a good excuse to be a pain in my neck... even if only a 'little' pain." Sweets then got a smug look. "And third, thanks for saying I'm a pretty face; at least you're not short sighted."

"Okay, enough with the short jokes; I'm not that tall, I get it. I've heard it enough times in my life to get it!" Cando growled. "I'm still one of the pack's best hunters!"

"Probably because you're so small the deer can't even see you coming." Sweets grinned.

"If you weren't a female, I'd be beating you up right now." Cando was now snarling.

"Oh, you can only beat others UP; nobody is short enough for you to beat DOWN." Sweets was now snarling back. "And you aren't trying to beat me up because you know you can't."

"Would you be this brave if you weren't a living rubber band?" Cando was now very angry.

"No powers. I don't need them to take you down; after all, you're already DOWN enough." Sweets, angry as well, morphed from her sexy form to her normal one. She had enough of this too.

The two wolves pounced on each other at once, rolling on the ground while trying to get the upper paw. Cando was much stronger than he seemed, but Sweets, even if not using her powers actively at the moment, the elasticity power made her naturally stronger than the average wolf even when not using it to enhance her muscles.

The duo battled like this for almost 20 minutes until Sweets managed to push Cando away from her and the guy hit his back against a tree. Cando growled in pain, something Sweets noticed, but he still tried to continue fighting; Sweets got surprised by his stamina and guts, but also concerned, realizing she wouldn't get injured that much in this fight no matter who won, but Cando would surely end with serious injuries if they continued.

"It's over, Shorty. Stop now before you get hurt!" Sweets dodged an attack.

"I don't give up... and the name isn't SHORTY, is Cando!" Cando tried to attack again but Sweets decided to end the match by using her powers, stretching her whole body and embracing Cando like a snake, restraining him completely.

"You... cheated... this was a non-powers match!" Cando still struggled.

"Yeah, but not a fight to the death, and you are stupid enough to kill yourself fighting even when it's obvious you're gonna lose!" Sweets stretched her neck to look at him eye-to-eye.

"You... silly... Stretchy..."

"You... stubborn... Short..."

Before anyone could realize what was going on, the pair was kissing; and it wasn't a little lick or peck in the lips, but a full kiss. Sweets stopped restraining Cando, the guy stopped resisting as well. After a minute or so, they stopped kissing, and they were actually blushing.

"Uh... eh... you... are a good fighter... you know... for an... Elastic Female Omega..." Cando finally said.

"And... uh... you're not... that... dislikable... for a Shorty." Sweets replied.

"I'm not that short, you know..." Cando frowned. "And I'm more than a... well... short wolf."

"It seems so... wanna... prove it? Maybe... the two of us, well..." Sweets blushed a bit more.

"You mean... going out... together... as in..." Cando was gulping now. "A date?"

"If you see it... that way... well... yeah, why not?" Sweets shrugged and grinned. "Or maybe you don't wanna go because you don't know how to act on a date."

"Oh, is that a challenge, Stretch?" Cando smirked. "Because I'm tempted to accept it."

"Then, it's settled; see you later tonight in front of the waterfall. We can decide where to go from there." Sweets proposed.

"Good idea. See you then." Cando got a little smile at this. Then, they both started walking back to the pack. "Mmm... why we even bother saying 'good bye' when we live at the same place?"

"It's the polite thing to do; and don't say we live at the same place until we end up sharing a den." Sweets pointed out.

"Mmm... proposing to me before the first date; you are more daring than I thought." Cando grinned at her.

Sweets rolled her eyes yet said nothing until they returned to the pack's living quarters and each wolf went to his/her respective den.

Later that night, Sweets went to the waterfall; she had wanted to talk with Candy beforehand and find out how her date went, but it seemed that Candy's date worked extremely well, and she didn't return to her den until past noon, and Candy had been sleeping since then. So, Sweets was a bit nervous before the date and with nobody to talk about it, specially since it had been a while since Sweets was on a real date.

Cando was already there, and Sweets noticed he had his head underwater. Before she could ask what was happening, Cando took his head out of the river, holding a very large fish in his muzzle.

"Good Evening, Stretch. I brought dinner." Cando grinned when looking at her.

"Heh... at least it's fresh." Sweets grinned back. "I know a good place for us to eat this."

Sweets and Cando went to The Grotto, and Sweets used her powers to set up a table for them, transforming into her muscular anthro self to carry rocks and some logs, placing them to work as a table. Cando admired her might as she continued working.

"That's quite a neat trick."

"Yeah, these elastic powers can be very handy." Sweets admitted before changing back to normal; Cando then placed the fish on top of the table, and Sweets morphed one of her paws, making it blade-like, to cut the fish in two perfect halves.

"Definitely handy." Cando commented as they both started eating. Sweets noticed he ate in a very 'wild' way (even by wolves standards), but he was still careful enough to not get his fur or hers dirty.

"So... how come you had never talked to me before?" Sweets asked him.

"Uh... normally I'm out hunting with the rest of the pack...and you usually don't pay any attention to 'short' males." Cando admitted.

"Mmm... yes... Well, we can try correcting that." Sweets winked an eye at him. Cando blushed a bit and continued eating, Sweets smirking at how he reacted to her advances.

"You know, you're not that bad looking for a short wolf." Sweets tried to sound as non-offensive as possible. "How come you're still single? After all, you're one of the pack's main hunters."

"Well, you just said it... many times... I'm short." Cando groaned a bit. "Most females want a big, strong male... or at least, bigger than them. Usually, females only see me as a... midget... or they think I'm a pup that never grew up completely. Of course, this makes me try to be as tough and strong as possible to compensate... and you can see how it works for me."

"Mmm... that anger makes you a hard worker and a good hunter... but also makes you very short tempered, and that's not exactly attractive." Sweets guessed.

"Yeah, you got that right. That's also why I usually don't hang around with the other wolves when we're not hunting or eating all together." Cando sighed. "Especially if anyone goes too far with the 'short' comments and I get angry enough to fight him."

"Or her." Sweets groaned a bit, remembering their previous fight. "Sorry I made you fight me."

"Nah, it's fine. You said it, I'm short tempered. Besides, I knew I wouldn't be able to really hurt you because of that plastic body of yours... the most I could do was trying to pin you."

"You did it very well." Sweets admitted. "Still, you're right; I fought you knowing you wouldn't be able to win, and that's like... cheating or something."

"Nah, we both needed to vent some anger." Cando shrugged. "Also, if I may ask, why you're still single as well? You're good looking, a much better fighter than I expected (powers or not) and you definitely have a brain. Any male would love to have a mate like you."

Sweets smiled a bit at his comments but then sighed sadly. She hated when others asked this to her, and usually she just ignored the question, but since he had already answered her about the same thing, it was just fair for Sweets to be honest with him as well.

"I... hadn't been that lucky with males. Most of the time, they can't... stand me. You know I have a bit... not that much, of course... of an ego... again, not that much... But still, enough to get others annoyed at me." Sweets admitted.

"That's also what I want to ask you; why the snobbish attitude? You had been very decent on this date, but, in public, you always act all high and mighty."

"Something I got from a bad dating experience." Sweets started narrating. "I used to like this guy... and he was kinda snobbish too, so I pretty much got many of his mannerisms when we were together... But it didn't work; in the end, he was so much of a jerk I lost my patience with him, and I dumped him like a rotten piece of rat flesh. And, well, he was so angry he started spreading rumors about me with the other males, pretty much blaming me from all the problems we had as a couple... and that ruined many possible dating opportunities for me. That didn't help my temper at all, so I continued being the spoiled snob you know... I mean, if everyone treated me like garbage, I saw no reason to be nice to anyone. Except Candy, of course, but due to our friendship, many of the other males started rejecting her too, thinking she was the same as me."

Cando was now gasping in surprise but then scowled in anger. Due to his not-very-social ways, he usually ignored the rumors and didn't spend enough time with the other wolves to get to know about these problems on his own, so he had no idea about Sweets' problems or her dating this other guy until now.

"Tell me this guy's name. I wanna have a 'chat' with him." Cando couldn't help but growl a bit.

"As much as I'd like being present for that 'chat', I guess it wouldn't be fair for his family." Sweets sighed. "He eventually settled down with another female and they have pups of their own."

"Oh." Cando got a neutral expression. "Yeah... guess it wouldn't be fair for the gal and their pups to see her mate and their dad getting beaten to a pulp. Okay... then better don't tell me his name."

"I won't. And thanks." Sweets answered, touched by his concern and impressed at his self control. Despite his bad temper, it seemed Cando could get a hold on himself, at least for the pups' sake.

Cando realized their 'date conversation' wasn't exactly fitting for what was supposed to be a nice evening for them both, so decided to switch topics.

"Well... since I can't go after this guy, and it's obvious you and I can't change the past to have better memories about our love life... or lack of it.." Cando added the last part on a soft murmur, "Let's talk about something else like... uh... how do you feel with your powers? Does it hurt when you use them."

"No, not at all." Sweets nodded before stretching one of her arms to the size of a fallen tree and grabbing a leaf from a nearby bush. "It was weird at first, but Candy and I are getting used to them." Sweets then retracted her arm to normal size and used the leaf as a napkin to clean up her muzzle.

"I can see, Stretch. You really used them well when we fought." Cando pointed out.

"Oh, and that was just a basic ability. I can do a lot more than just stretch. Wanna see?" Sweets smiled at a nodding Cando. Once they finished eating, they went back to the river, right where Sweets had found Candy and Hutch the previous night.

"The first thing Candy and I learned was how to stretch any part of our bodies. It's the most basic, simplest thing, but it helps warm up our muscles and prepares us for the most advanced stuff." Sweets explained while stretching her legs, body and neck, until she was pretty much the size of a giraffe.

"Heh... now I REALLY feel like a 'Shorty'." Cando smirked while looking up at the elastic female.

"And the sight from here is great. Let me show you." Sweets extended her neck even more and moved it down, motioning Cando to climb in. The short male hesitated a bit but he soon shrugged and did as said; then, Sweets elevated her neck again, with Cando holding on it; when he found himself at the same level as many of the tallest trees around, Cando couldn't help but whistle, impressed.

"Wow. Yes, the sight is amazing from up here."

"Told you." Sweets then lowered him back to earth and she changed back to normal. "Here's a basic shape; the ball."

Sweets morphed herself into the ball form, and started bouncing around Cando. The male grinned and, following his basic hunting instinct combined with his inner pup's playfulness, he started chasing after the ball, bouncing it and then balancing it on top of his head.

"You're good at this." Sweets commented without losing her spheric shape.

"Yeah, this is a lot like those times I play with the butterflies." Cando stopped playing and gulped while Sweets started giggling.

"You still play with the butterflies?" Sweets changed back to normal, grinning at this. Usually, only pups did that, as butterfly-chasing was considered too much of a child play for an adult wolf to still do it.

"What, what's wrong with that?" Cando frowned, not liking the fact he had blurted one of his most privatest secret to anyone, especially a female he was... getting fond of.

Sweets, grinning, morphed one of her paws into a butterfly-like shape, and stretched her arm over Cando's head, making the 'butterfly' to move its wings to simulate a flight. Cando chuckled at this and started trying to catch it, Sweets moving the 'butterfly' in a perfect imitation of a real insect's flight. Cando eventually managed to catch it.

"Good move. Now, your reward." Sweets morphed her paw into a human-like hand and started scratching behind Cando's ears, the male moaning in delight and wagging his tail at this. Sweets them morphed her other paw and started scratching his belly as well, increasing his bliss.

"Oooooh... this feels soooooo good... you think humans do this for their dogs?" Cando moaned in happiness.

"The whole petting and scratching thing? Mmm... it's possible." Sweets admitted before getting an idea. "Hey, wanna swim?"

"Sure. I'm a good swimmer." Cando grinned at this. Despite his short limbs, he was pretty fast and strong in the water, and he sometimes swam as an exercise to keep himself in top shape to chase fast prey.

"I doubt you can swim faster than I do." Sweets grinned back. "Race you to the water."

Since they weren't very far from the grotto, it was a quite short race; Cando entered first, and, when he turned back to say 'Told you' to Sweets, he saw her using her elastic powers to jump very high in the air, and then, right before splash-landing, she morphed into an anthro form; the upper body was very human-like, including morphing her clothing to simulate a bra/bikini, but the lower body was exactly like a fish's.

"Wow." Cando said in awe as the jumping mer-wolf passed over his head and dived right behind him. Sweets' head emerged almost immediately, this time morphing her head too to get a large, pretty hairdo.

"Impressed, Shorty?" Sweets grinned at him.

"A lot, Stretch. You get cooler by the second!" Cando grinned back at her. "Still, a bit unfair, don't you think? No way I can swim faster than a fish."

"No, but you can swim along with the fish." Sweets grabbed him by the shoulders; Cando understood what she meant and took a deep breath. Sweets did the same since, after all, she still was a mammal and needed air to survive, and then pulled Cando underwater along with her, the elastic mer-wolf giving him a nice tour. Even if it was night already, and therefore the water wasn't exactly clear, there was a good moon that night that provided enough light for them to see, plus Sweets could stretch her arms to feel her way underwater and avoid underwater obstacles like rocks and similar.

Cando was so happy with this diving that he almost forgot he was running out of air. When he finally realized he needed to breath again, he tapped Sweets' body; she realized what he meant and surprised Cando with a very big, passionate kiss that not just brought immense bliss to them both but also allowed her to pass him some extra air; having elastic lungs, Sweets could hold a lot more oxygen than normal, so she could share some without drowning herself. What really surprised her was when Cando started caressing her with his paws while they still kissed, and then she started caressing him back, the duo having now an improvised making out session.

This passionate moment became 10 passionate minutes; after that time, even Sweets was running out of air. She moved her fishy tail to push Cando and herself to the surface so they could have a good breath; they stopped to stare at each other's eyes.

"You... are gorgeous." Cando said when getting his breath back.

"You... are right." Sweets smiled at him. "And I think you look great too."

Without stopping to stare lovingly at each other, Sweets brought themselves back to the shore, this time by morphing her fish tail into legs, and stretching them until touching the river's bottom and walking out of the water. Once they were out, Sweets had another idea and morphed herself into a towel, using her own body to dry him up... and caress every single inch of Cando's body in the process, the male wolf moaning in delight through the whole process. When finishing, Sweets turned her own body very slippery and smooth, to the point all the water fall down without any problem, so she was perfectly dry in a few moments... and, to make sure all the water fell from her, she started taking deep breaths and inflating herself so the water could slip down easier and faster.

"Heh... how much can you inflate yourself?" Cando half-joked.

"Mmm... wanna find out?" Sweets grinned at him and then started inflating even more, until she was pretty much a balloonish canine.

"Heh... like the ball trick, but with lots more air, uh?" Cando smirked at her.

"And with another voice." Sweets surprised Cando with her deep and tough voice. Obviously, all this air and changing her throat's size affected it.

"Wow, believe it or not, you sound like my mom." Cando surprised Sweets with this; he just shrugged at her expression. "She was a tough gal; I once saw her taking down an elk by herself."

"Cool. So, wanna play with the wolf balloon?" Sweets invited him. Cando lost no time to start making her bounce; unlike the ball, the bouncing wasn't that fast but she had a little flotation, so every time she bounced up it took Sweets a few moments to start going down, and did it at a slow pace, giving Cando more than enough time to bounce her up again. It was obvious they both enjoyed this a lot.

After a while of playing like this, Sweets had another mischievous idea, and deflated herself in a split second, right when she was over Cando; so, she fell on top of him like a huge carpet, covering the male wolf completely.

"My, you really enjoy being on top, uh?" Cando's fake-angry voice was heard from under Sweets' body.

"And don't you forget it." Sweets smirked at this before morphing back to her normal self.

"Mmm... guess I'll need to get used to that; unless you actually get to enjoy if I'm the one on top." Cando smirked back.

"Heh, not likely to happen; you're the 'shorty' here, remember?" Sweets' nose was now touching his.

"Let me show you if I'm as 'short' as you say." Cando kissed her, and then the couple started rolling on the grass, kissing, licking and caressing each other with a passion. At some point, their rolling moved them far away from the shore, and didn't stop until realizing two wolves were there, looking at them.

"WHAT THE..." Cando and Sweets stopped instantly and stood up in a split second. In front of them, Hutch and Candy had the most shocked faces they had ever seen.

"HUTCH?"

"CANDO!"

"SWEETS?"

"CANDY!"

"I don't know if I should faint, clap, cheer up or ask for an autograph." Hutch admitted.

"You two... uh... eh... are together? I mean, sure, it's obvious you are, but... since when?" Candy got her voice back.

"Heh... a while ago." Sweets grinned and rubbed the back of her neck.

"Yeah... guess we didn't... want to lose time, uh?" Cando blushed considerably and he and Sweets shared a nervous laugh.

"Well then... congratulations, to the both of you." Hutch said, visibly happy.

"Yes, it's nice you two found each other." Candy smiled at her friend, who soon smiled back and then the two elastic friends hugged each other in happiness.

"Sorry I'm going to be the one ruining the moment, but... uh..." Hutch groaned before sighing. "The reason we... came here looking for you... well... You have to get back with the pack; especially you, Sweets."

Sweets gave him a puzzled look until Candy sighed.

"Kate and Lilly are back... and they brought that Tabias guy."


	4. Elastic Crossroads

Chapter 4 - Elastic Crossroads

Dr Tabias looked around as Kate and Lilly continued taking him deeper and deeper into the forest; he realized the wolves were walking in circles and avoiding a direct route; obviously, they didn't trust him enough to take him right to their lairs. He also noticed the other 2 wolves weren't on sight; either they were invisible at the moment, or they weren't even around.

"How much longer?" Tabias, riding a horse-sized Kate, asked the wolves.

"Not much. We'll be there in a moment." Kate replied before talking to Lilly in wolf language. "You've been very quiet."

"I'm thinking about Garth and my pups; this is the longest we've been away from home since we became a couple." Lilly sighed.

"Mmm... yeah, I feel the same way about Humphrey and my pups. And I'm also worried about their wellbeing... I mean, we pretty much trusted Candy and Sweets' education on our pups, and knowing those two... not exactly the best influence for our offspring." Kate sighed; she didn't have the best opinion about the new elastic pair.

"I just hope our pups don't start acting like them. I never told this to anyone because I like being friends with all the wolves in the pack, but Candy and Sweets kinda get on my nerves at times." Lilly admitted.

"Uh, you know, it's not polite to have a private conversation in front of others." Tabias said to the wolves, obviously a bit annoyed about not being able to understand their language.

"Hey, if we can understand Human, it's not our fault you can't understand Canine. Seriously, you're supposed to be the smart one." Lilly rolled her eyes and got her playful mood back. "Heh, maybe you humans should stop calling us 'Dumb Animals', and call yourselves 'Dumb Humans'."

Tabias groaned and facepalmed while Kate chuckled a bit.

Meanwhile, Austin and Casey had arrived at the pack's lair and explained everything, including how Kate and Lilly were getting Dr Tabias to examine Candy and Sweets; since they had left in their invisible form, and they didn't need to take a longer way back home, they arrived much faster than the elastic females.

"We also need to take Candy and Sweets to the Grotto or some other place far from home. We can't let Doctor Tabias know the exact place where we live." Austin said to Humphrey.

"Okay... let's take them to the cliff. Once we get there, we'll howl to tell Kate and Lilly we're there so they can take this guy there." Humphrey proposed.

"Good. The moment Hutch and Candy bring Sweets here, we're leaving." Casey said before chuckling a bit. "Never thought Hutch and Candy would become a couple... and Sweets in a date with Cando? And here I thought having super powers would be the craziest thing happening to a wolf."

"Give them some credit. Both Candy and Sweets had been behaving quite nicely." Garth admitted. He didn't say it out loud, but more than having Dr Tabias examining Candy and Sweets, he was more eager to see Lilly again. Humphrey was pretty much the same thinking about Kate.

"Okay, we're back." Everyone turned when hearing Candy; Hutch was with her, and Sweets and Cando were following. "So, where's that doctor?"

"We're meeting him at the cliff. We don't want any human to know where we live, just in case he later goes back on his promise." Garth told them; according to what Austin and Casey told the pack, Dr Tabias wasn't directly responsible for Candy and Sweets' transformation into super elastic wolves, but it was always possible that, after watching Candy and Sweets, Tabias decided to go back to his animal experimentation.

"Hey, can we go too?" Hutch asked.

"Yeah, I don't want any silly human playing mad doctor with my Stretch." Cando frowned while pointing at Sweets before getting a sly smirk. "And good thing we'll be at the cliff, because if he tries playing one of his sciency-things on us... we can always push him off the edge."

"Aw, that's the nicest scary thing I've ever heard." Sweets grinned back at Cando.

The pack decided that, besides Candy and Sweets, the only other wolves there should be Humphrey and Garth, due to them being Kate and Lilly's mates, and Hutch and Cando, since, by now, it was obvious they were Candy and Sweets' mates.

The wolves went to the cliff, and then started howling; Kate and Lilly heard them and went there, glad that Casey and Austin had already explained everything to the pack. The moment Kate and Lilly saw their mates, however, they forgot about the mission for the time being, and Kate reduced herself to normal wolf size, almost dropping Dr Tabias, to get Humphrey in a full body embrace, wrapping herself around him while kissing him, and Lilly turned into a ball to tackle Garth and pin him to the ground before kissing him with a passion.

"Wow. They really missed each other, huh?" Cando smirked at Sweets.

"Hey, Kate, Lilly, nice to see you again, but you brought the guy to see us, remember?" Candy got the other elastic females and their mates' attention. Tabias, who just stood there after Kate almost dropped him, groaned a bit at this display.

"Great. These two have someone waiting for them when they return home, and I hadn't been on a date in... uh... since... eh..." Tabias thought out loud, trying to remember his last date... and not being able to remember even one. "Okay, now I'm depressed."

"Right, sorry." Kate, ignoring Tabias' little monologue, unwrapped herself from Humphrey's body and turned back at the scientist, talking Human again. "Okay, Doctor, they're the wolves your ex-assistant transformed; Candy and Sweets. You can examine them, but remember, we'll keep an eye on you at all times."

"I`m keeping both eyes." Lilly, who had stopped pinning Garth, frowned at Tabias while enlarging her eyes to dish size.

"Okaaay... I got it; you do things literally." Tabias, more than a little impressed at Lilly's display, nodded at her and approached Candy and Sweets while taking out some instruments he brought for the occasion. "Uh... can you tell them I'm not gonna hurt anyone?"

"They can understand your language; you're the one who can't talk to ours." Kate reminded him. "Don't worry, I'll translate everything they want to ask you."

Tabias nodded before hearing some snarling coming from Cando.

"Huh... what did he say?"

"Oh, his name is Cando, a friend of ours I have no idea why he's here..." Kate was interrupted by Humphrey whispering in her ear, the female gasping after a moment. "He is... wow... now that's impressive."

"What?" Tabias asked.

"Right... okay, Cando and Sweets became a couple recently; and about your other question, he said that, if you hurt Sweets, he's gonna rip off your kidneys and then, while you scream in agony, he'll push you off the cliff."

Tabias paled in fear but when looking back at Cando, who was still snarling at him, he realized Kate wasn't lying.

"Tell him..." Kate interrupted the human.

"He can understand your language, remember?"

"Oh, right..." Tabias turned back at Cando. "Eh... I promise I won't hurt your mate, so... you can stop looking at me as if I were your dinner."

Cando snarled and growled quietly, and, again, Kate translated.

"He said he's gonna trust you; just remember your promise and he'll forget about his warning. Because Cando never threats; he warns. His words, not mine." Kate added quickly. "But I fully agree with him; so, remember your promise, Tabias."

The scientist nodded and started working with the wolves, taking some samples and analyzing them on the spot, plus asking Candy and Sweets to do some transformations so he could witness and complement his research.

"Mmm... okay... so far, it seems they're healthy; and no side effects. If seems the formula worked just fine; they're not gonna suffer any horrible mutation or disease." Tabias informed the wolves, all of them sighing in relief.

"Hope this doesn't encourage you to going back to experimenting on live animals." Kate warned him.

"I... fine, I won't." Tabias groaned at this. In reality, after checking out Candy and Sweets' samples, he had been tempted to get back to his old experiments, realizing a lot of the current research was more than ready to test on live animals, but Kate's reminder made him realize the wolves would still keep an eye on him, and he didn't want to make them angry again.

"Okay, what now?" Lilly asked.

"I am sure the guy who stole my formula and injected it into your friends isn't very far from here, since he'll obviously be monitoring the test subjects." Tabias pointed out, the wolves agreeing with him since it was obvious the man, as a scientist, knew quite well how the other human's mind worked.

"Then, maybe Candy and Sweets should take you to the place where your ex-assistant shot them." Kate said before turning at Candy and Sweets. "You two take him to the exact spot where you were ambushed. Lilly will go with you; I wanna... check out something."

"Okay! We can use this time to practice your Human Talking."Lilly said to Candy and Sweets; obviously, morphing their throats enough to talk Human Language was a more delicate skill, and Candy and Sweets didn't know it that well.

After Candy and Sweets shared a kiss with their new mates, they left, along with Lilly, taking Dr Tabias to the place the other scientist injected them the formula; Garth, who obviously had missed his mate a lot, went along with them. Kate then turned back at Cando and Hutch; Humphrey moved aside, realizing this was something his mate wanted to handle personally.

"Guys, please, don't take this the wrong way, but... are you sure you want to date those two?" Kate arched an eyebrow.

"Not easy to not take THAT the wrong way, Kate." Hutch frowned a bit.

"Why not?" Cando frowned as well. "It's not as if you run a dating service around here."

"Look, the thing is, I know Candy and Sweets... they're not bad, but they aren't exactly the nicest wolves around."

"Neither do I, and guess I deserve dating the female I want, don't I?" Cando got a bit closer to Kate, actually snarling a bit. Humphrey knew that, if things went violent, Cando would be the one regretting it, but he hoped nothing bad happened.

"Kate, not long after you and Lilly left to see this scientist, Candy saved my life." Hutch entered the conversation, surprising Kate and calming Cando. When Hutch narrated her how everything happened, Kate was visibly impressed.

"And guess what? You don't need someone to save your life to get attracted to her." Now it was Cando's turn to talk. "In fact, Stretch and I started on the wrong paw... and a little violently." The short male seemed a bit ashamed at the last part but soon got a little smile and, just like Hutch did, narrated the incident to the other wolves.

"Curious... Sweets being a tomboyish female that actually fights a male, and Candy being heroic? Guess I don' t know them as well as I thought." Kate admitted.

"It's because you don't really know them in a... close, familiar way." Hutch pointed out.

"Yeah, I mean, you obviously love Humphrey, but for anyone who doesn't really know the guy, thinks he's nothing but a big buffoonish pup... no offense.." Cando turned at Humphrey at the last part.

"None at all." Humphrey, more than used to these comments, shrugged and then looked back at Kate. "And they have a point, Kate. Maybe you should talk with Candy and Sweets and try to get to know them in a closer, non-arguing level."

"We can give you the basics." Hutch added, and then started telling everyone about the problems Candy had in the past, with emphasis on her broken heart's issues. They were all visibly touched at this, and when Hutch ended, it was a perfect cue for Cando to tell about Sweet's own problems.

"Wow." Kate was visibly impressed by this new information. "I... never thought they had it that bad in the past. Truth be said, I always thought they were nothing but... uh... well..."

"A pair of snobbish airheads without any regards for others' feelings?" Humphrey ended the phrase before turning back at Hutch and Cando. "Sorry, guys, no offense."

"No, it's fine... most of the pack think around the same lines. Of course, we don't agree with that, but.." Hutch was interrupted by Cando.

"Then again, Hutch and I rarely spent enough time around the other wolves to hear those rumors or get to really know Candy and Stretch before these days."

"Guess that helped you both, since you could get to know Candy and Sweets without having a previous bad image of them." Kate's deduction was met with agreement by the males. "Okay, I'll go see how the research is working, and I'll take that chance to talk with Lilly about this too."

"Can we go too? Garth is already there." Humphrey pointed out.

"Sorry, guys, but they left a while ago, and I'll need to use my full speed to catch up with them... and no offense, but I move much faster than any of you, so I can't wait." Kate wasn't exactly thrilled about this, since she really had missed Humphrey and wanted his company a lot, but they all knew she had to do the logical thing in this case. "Plus, you guys have to tell the rest of the pack about what we just did here, and what are we doing now."

Humphrey and the other males nodded in agreement, and, after a last, quick kissing with Humphrey, Kate morphed into a ball and rolled/bounced on her way to catch up with the others. As she pointed out, this way of moving was extremely fast, and none of the normal wolves would be able to keep up with her.

By the time Kate found the group, changing into her normal self at times in order to use her nose and track them down, Tabias was already checking around the area of the ambush, trying to find hidden cameras or some clue about his ex-assistant's location.

"No luck so far." Tabias pointed out to Kate when noticing her arrival. "It seems he covered up his tracks quite well."

"Yes, this guy even used some wacky-sciency liquid to cover up his scent. We can't even sniff any traces of human smell besides Doctor Tabias'." Lilly added.

"Mmm... okay, let's expand the search. Garth, you try to sniff that way," Kate pointed at a distance, "while Lilly and I try the other one, so we can find the spot where this liquid stops messing with our noses and we can find this guy's scent. On the meantime, Candy and Sweets can talk with Dr Tabias and explain him what happened, in their own words."

"Good. We can practice our Human-ish." Candy said, Tabias understanding her perfectly; aside from her speaking a little slower than a person would normally do, her human speech was good enough to carry a conversation with him.

"Okay. Let's start." Sweets talked Human-ish as well, even if a bit slower than Candy; she seemed to be aware of this fact, and that's why she was only speaking in short phrases, something understandable since she and Candy had just started practicing human-talking with Lilly on their way to this spot.

While Candy and Sweets talked with Tabias, Garth gave Lilly a quick kiss on her nose before leaving to do his tracking job; Lilly smiled at this display, gladly surprised, since usually she was the one starting public displays of affection in this relationship.

"Heh. He really missed you, uh?" Kate chuckled but then turned a bit more serious. "Come on, we have to do our work too."

The 2 more experienced elastic females started walking away from the group, and, once they were far enough, besides sniffing around, Kate started telling Lilly about her conversation with the males, Lilly being surprisingly silent and alert through the whole narrative.

"Ouch. Now I feel bad for those bad things I've thought about them at times." Lilly sighed. "Not many times, of course, but..."

"I get it... and don't worry. I feel bad for the both of us." Kate groaned a bit. Lilly, despite obviously gaining a lot of maturity after getting her powers, marrying Garth and becoming a mother, was still a big pup at heart, and it would take a lot for her to develop mean feelings for anyone; Kate, on the other paw, had been upset and sometimes even angry with Candy and Sweets a number of times.

"Guess we'll need to apologize later, uh?" Lilly commented at a nodding Kate.

"Yes... still, before that, let's wait until we talk with our pups, so we can see if Candy and Sweets had been nice with them, and not making any mean comments about us." Kate pointed out.

"Okies. Besides, I want to hug my puppies too!" Lilly gave Kate a nice, juvenile smile, and Kate couldn't help but smile a bit as well.

Before Kate could say anything else, she and Lilly heard Garth's howling. They quickly rushed to his side, finding him sniffing a tree.

"I got that human's scent. He... put a hand on this tree... and he was the last human who did it in the last week." Garth said while sniffing. "And it seems he's alone."

"Good; it will be easier to face just one human, even if he's a wacky scientist, than facing a wacky scientist with many helpers." Kate nodded at Garth while confirming his info herself by sniffing the tree as well. A few moments later, Candy and Sweets arrived with Dr Tabias, the scientist a bit shaken due to Candy carrying him like a ragdoll thanks to her muscular anthro transformation, something she did to get Tabias to the place the others were without needing to wait for the human, who obviously wasn't that fast.

"We heard the howling. You found the guy?" Sweets asked the others.

"My Garth found the scent. He's great!" Lilly, as usual, praised Garth with the glee of a little pup. The wolves then started talking Human, so Tabias could understand them.

"This guy was here. He placed a hand on this tree, probably to lean on it, or just casually, while walking; it was at this point when he stopped using the liquid that covers his scent." Kate informed Tabias, who then started examining the tree and the lawn around it, actually finding some traces of the 'anti-scent' liquid.

"I recognize this thing... it's a veterinarian product; dog breeders use it to cover the females' scent when they're in heat so they don't mate unless the breeder decides it." Tabias told the wolves, all of them getting shocked expressions.

"HUMANS DON'T LET THEIR DOGS MATE WHEN THEY WANT?" Sweets gasped.

"AND THE DOGS CAN'T CHOOSE THEIR MATES?" Lilly gasped as well.

"And you humans say we're the animals." Kate frowned at Tabias, the guy gulping a bit.

"Eh... uh... well... c-can you follow the scent?" Tabias quickly got back to topic.

Garth, who, obviously, was the only wolf who couldn't speak Human, nodded at Tabias and started following the scent; the other wolves followed after him, with Tabias going last; Lilly stayed at his side, without sniffing, since the others were already doing it, and someone had to keep an eye on Tabias.

After walking for a while, Kate decided to enlarge her ears and give them a bat-shape, so her hearing would improve even more; it was a good thing because it allowed her to hear a very characteristic 'click'.

"Someone is aiming a gun at us... DUCK AND COVER!" Kate yelled at her companions, and they all jumped behind the trees or rocks closer to each one; however, Sweets wasn't fast enough and she got impacted by a pink projectile... that exploded and covered her in a plastic paste.

"Sweets!" Candy tried to help her but Garth restrained her; a few moments later, they all saw how this glue formed a large bubble around Sweets.

"The prototype..." Tabias thought out loud. "That's a prototype weapon another scientific team at the lab was working with! It's supposed to stop a criminal, soldier or animal without injuring him/her/it!"

"Do you humans EVER invent something that doesn't mess with anyone's life?" Lilly groaned.

"Sweets, try to break free!" Kate, behind a tree, yelled at her.

Sweets morphed into a larger yet still wolfish shape, but the bubble adapted to her change and stretched along with the wolf; she then tried different shapes, including some other animals (bear, bison, deer and so), but the substance kept adapting to her transformations.

Tabias moved aside and tried to find the place where this scientist-turned-sniper was shooting from.

"Stop it; it's me, Doctor Tabias!" The scientist started yelling. "I know you're the one shooting at us, Justin!"

"Heh, I know, Doc." They all heard the criminal shouting. "I adapted the prototype; I can see you from more than a mile away, if I want; so don't waste any time trying to find me."

Kate then realized the voice was coming from some microphones hidden at the trees; in other words, this human could communicate with them without being in a normal hearing and talking range. The elastic female had an idea and started focusing on her bat-hearing; after a few moments, she got a sly smirk and yelled something at Garth, in Wolf Language, so the humans couldn't know about her plan.

"I know what you did, Justin; you must stop the experiments. Besides, you stole the lab's property!" Dr Tabias yelled back.

"Jealous? I know I'd be, if my assistant proved being a much better scientist than myself." Justin continued teasing Tabias. "But don't worry; I don't plan to kill you; that's another reason I stole this gun instead of using a normal pistol or rifle. Heh... no... you'll be more useful if I capture you and get all your secrets. You have a very creative brain, Tabias. Too bad you lack the guts to use it."

Justin then went back to shooting, this time because of Lilly, Kate and Candy jumping and bouncing around; so far, he wasn't hitting anyone, but his aim was improving with every shot.

After a few moments, however, Justin stopped shooting and teasing... and instead, everyone heard yelling, growling and far shots, all of them coming from the microphones.

"Heh. Garth did it." Kate grinned.

At his shooting spot, a very well camouflaged observation station on top of a tree, Justin was now shooting at Garth and several other wolves; while Justin was busy shooting at Tabias and the other elastic wolves, Garth sneaked away and, with a howl, called the pack for help. Thanks to Kate's super hearing, she had located the exact place where he was hidden, and informed Garth in Wolfish, so Justin didn't know about it and he was surprised by Garth, along with Humphrey, Salty, Shakey, Mooch, Hutch and Cando.

"Stupid mutts... stop moving!" Justin continued shooting, but, unlike his long distance shots, these close distance ones weren't easy for him due to the wolves using the very tree he was using as a shooting spot as their coverage, so Justin was pretty much just covering the tree's base in paste.

After wasting several shots, Justin realized that normal wolves couldn't climb up the tree, so he was basically safe from them. The man then tried to get back to shooting Tabias and the elastic females, but he only spotted the already captured Sweets, plus Lilly, who had turned her paws into blades to try cutting off the paste without hurting Sweets.

"Where are those..."

Justin was interrupted by Kate and Candy entering the observation station in ball shape, hitting his chest and leaving him breathless. Then, after Kate smashed one side of the station, making a hole on it, Candy used that same hole to kick Justin down.

Justin, in pain, tried to stand up, but the normal wolves jumped on top of him, pinning him down. Tabias, who had arrived with Candy and Kate, grabbed the paste/bubble weapon, and motioned the wolves to move aside. Once they did, Tabias used the weapon on Justin, trapping him for good.

"He surely has the paste's solvent up there." Tabias looked up at Candy and Kate. "The solvent is a dark, green liquid."

"Working with the wolves now, Tabias?" Justin, despite being trapped, could still hear and talk normally; the paste, being designed to keep the prey alive, allowed air and light in and out, so Justin had no problems to communicate with Tabias.

"You leave these wolves alone, Justin; I promised them I would leave this pack alone as long as I didn't use any of them in my experiments."

"Which experiments, The Super Soldier Project or the experiment where you try to cure Crystal and Gem?"

Tabias fell silent while all the wolves around the two humans became quite alert and curious.


	5. Humans Turned Wolves

Chapter 5 - Humans turned Wolves

"Care to explain, Tabias?" Kate said to the scientist when she and Candy walked down the station, Kate holding the solvent.

"The wolf really talks... I thought you were just hallucinating that part." Justin smirked at Tabias. "Now, should I tell them what I'm talking about, or only the elastic wolves can understand human language?"

The other wolves started growling at Justin.

"Oh, trust me, they all can understand Human. And they get offended if you call them 'dumb animals'." Tabias couldn't help but smirk a bit.

"Candy, take the solvent with Sweets and Lilly; use the bat-ears trick so you can hear everything." Kate said to Candy in Wolfish. The other elastic wolf nodded at her and left in a hurry; meanwhile, the other wolves stared/frowned at the humans.

"Okay, guess I'll better be the one explaining." Tabias sighed. "You see... I... well..."

"We're waiting." Kate rolled her eyes.

"I... my experiments on wolves... those weren't my first experiments with Animal DNA."

"Why am I not surprised?" Humphrey groaned; of course, since he didn't talk Human, neither Justin nor Tabias knew what he said, and Tabias continued.

"One of the first projects to create super soldiers was to... combine Human and Animal DNA. Instead of giving people abilities that aren't found in nature, like super elasticity, the other project focused on giving people the abilities of other creatures."

"Like, having the sight of a hawk, hearing like a wolf, the agility of a cougar, being strong like a bear and so?" Kate asked.

"Exactly; it all started when we were working on a formula to combine Human DNA with Wolf DNA." Tabias sighed. "Besides the obvious powers the people would get, like, enhanced senses and stamina, the other researchers were... fond of wolves."

"They had good taste." Garth shrugged; again, Tabias didn't know what the wolf was saying, and continued.

"But, the people who loved wolves the most were my beloved wife and sister in law; they always thought wolves were adorable."

Lilly, who was hearing everything as well thanks to her own bat-ears, smiled at this while Sweets was finally liberated from the paste.

"You see we were working on the formula.. my wife and I were in charge of the research while her sister assisted us; until that fateful day..." Tabias took a deep breath and closed his eyes at this point.

"There was an accident... an explosion destroyed the vat that was keeping the formula in until we could ship it to the government so they could use it with the soldiers." Tabias looked down. "We thought it was already safe for use on humans... but not a dosage that big."

"The chemical spilled on Crystal and Gem... and after that they began to change into wolf-like creatures right before my eyes; I can still hear their agonizing screams echo in my head; I saw them changing into the monsters they've now become." Tabias rubbed the sides of his head while saying this.

"Monsters? They changed into wolves, didn't they?" Kate arched an eyebrow, more than a little offended.

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?" Tabias turned when hearing Candy's voice, as Lilly and Sweets finally arrived. The other wolves looked a bit upset as well.

"They didn't really turn into real wolves; I said they turned into wolf - like creatures, half-human, half-wolf. And unlike you when you get that humanoid shape," Tabias looked at the elastic wolves, "they can't change back into their normal human shape; and they don't speak Human, they just communicate with growling and howling that we humans can't understand... not to mention they're quite aggressive! We have to keep them in a special cell or they'd try to eat us!"

The wolves looked at each other and then at Tabias, nodding in understanding. They surely loved being wolves, but they were born wolves; they would certainly hate being transformed into another animal, especially if it meant attacking their families and loved ones.

"What did they look like before the accident?" Lilly asked Tabias.

Tabias then hands them a picture of two women, a blonde and a brunette, both of them wearing lab coats.

"Crystal's the blonde one; the brunette is Gem. They even changed their hair when they transformed... or more precisely, their fur." Tabias sighed. "Crystal... most of her fur is white, with dark marks; Gem is pretty much the inverse case, with very dark fur and white marks... and even if they have fur, they still have some human-like hair, long enough to cover their backs. And they're quite big; like you elastic wolves when turning anthro... guess that's another reason I got so scared when you threatened me while using that shape."

Kate and Lilly grinned a bit.

"But their eyes... they're not like yours; theirs are bright, and show no emotion besides a feral, predatory instinct; Crystal's eyes are a dark, sinister blue... and Gem's are a bloody crimson red."

"So, you mean they no longer see you as family, but as... prey, or as enemies." Kate correctly guessed. "It makes sense; we wolves get quite dangerous when we're injured or very badly sick... sometimes we can't even tell friend from foe and attack without control."

"And a change from human to wolf probably made them dangerous predators without any control." Candy added. "Like a lone wolf that has little to no contact with a pack."

Tabias nodded at this; obviously, being wolves, they would understand the predatory instincts much better than a human.

"Yeah, yeah, that's cool and all, but, how does that help us turn my sisters back to normal?" Justin snapped at Dr Tabias. "You had been wasting your time with this elasticity project... that has very impressive results, I must admit... but it doesn't help change them back to humans."

"You're wrong! One of the reasons I've worked this hard in the super elasticity project is because I hope that it will help Crystal and Gem shape-shift back into humans... or humanoid ones, at least."

"You mean, so they can change into humans just like we change into other animals?" Sweets asked while morphing into a deer.

"Exactly. Or, at least, change into anthros, just like you did in the lab... I mean, you wolves can't morph into humans, but you can talk and move like humans if you concentrate." Tabias said before looking at Lilly and Kate. "Guess that's why... I get so scared when you morph into anthros to threaten or negotiate with me... I actually feel more comfortable when you just talk to me like this, as normal-looking wolves..."

"Because when we change into the super muscular human-likes, we look too much like your wife and your sister-in-law." Lilly guessed.

"Well, now you know the formula works; you can use it in them." Candy pointed out.

"Not easy... I have to get samples from them, and as you can imagine, they don't let anyone touch them... plus, they became so aggressive and dangerous that we have to keep them in special facilities..." Tabias was interrupted by Kate.

"In other words, caged." Kate frowned. "Seriously, you humans have to put everything inside a cage? You would cage the trees if you could!"

"Actually, now you mention it, a greenhouse is pretty much a cage for plants, so..." Tabias realized it wasn't smart to finish this sentence and went back to topic. "Anyway, officially, they're now government test subjects, so any experiment performed on them is heavily monitored, and obviously, since I'm very involved, the people in charge don't let me work directly with them. If I come up with this new formula, I'd need to explain how I know it works..."

"Because you have seen how it worked with us." Kate nodded. "And then, your pack leaders would hunt for us again, because we'd move from 'fugitive experiments' to 'very important fugitive experiments'."

"Exactly. I can't take the samples from them in the 'special facilities' we're keeping them caged, and I can't take them with me to my lab because it would be very dangerous... and if I even try to get close to them, I'd have to tell about how I've seen the formula affects you wolves, and then my promise to stop experimenting on you wouldn't be worth a thing because you'd get hunted again."

"Then, let's just take them out of the cage and into your lab." Lilly shrugged.

"She's the least smart of the group, right?" Justin frowned, the other wolves growling at him immediately, and Garth gave him a hard donkey-kick in the face.

"He's her mate." Kate, grinning, told Justin, as he rubbed his face. "Be glad it was a kick and not a bite."

"Not that I wanna agree with the moron here, but he's right. The doctor just said it..." Sweets got interrupted by Lilly.

"I know. Tabias said 'he' can't take them out, but 'we' can do that for him. We are already fugitives and the humans know we save the experiment animals from their cages, so it would be normal for us; and then, we take these two wolf-like humans with Tabias and he can combine the Plasticity formula with the Animality one to heal them." Lilly said, smiling. Everyone stared at her in disbelief.

"Now you see you really deserved that kick for suggesting she wasn't smart." Kate grinned at Justin, the man just groaning but nodding at this. Garth lost no time to kiss his now giggling mate; Lilly wasn't known for being a serious thinker, but being a random, joking wolf didn't make her dumb.

"You know, that can work... you wolves can use your powers to get past the facilities' defenses and guards, just like you did at my lab... but, can you handle Crystal and Gem without hurting them?" Tabias was a bit worried at the last part.

"We'll see what we can do." Kate nodded at him. "I mean, if they're wolf-likes now, they'll most surely talk Canine, just like us; we can try talking and convincing them to come in peace."

"And if they are still trying to attack us, guess 4 Elastic, Shape-Shifting Adult Wolves, plus some young ones, and a few normal wolves as back-up, can manage to restrain those two without a big brawl." Candy offered.

"You have a point." Tabias nodded at this. A group of super wolves, with several normal ones assisting them, definitely had much better chances than a normal human without any special physical abilities.

Hutch then said something that, obviously, Tabias and Justin didn't get. Kate nodded at him and translated.

"He just asked what are we gonna do with him now." Kate said to Tabias while pointing at Justin.

"Mmm... yes, this is a problem. We can't just take him to jail..." Tabias noticed the wolves were staring at him, and he sighed. "A jail is a... place where we humans cage those of us that behave wrongly."

"Again with the cages? Well, at least you would be caging someone who deserves it." Sweets frowned, and then growled at Justin.

"But, unfortunately, if we cage him, he can still talk about the experiments, and tell everyone about you guys... and again, we'd have the whole 'hunting the super wolves' problem." Tabias groaned.

"Oh, well, then..." Sweets grinned when Cando said something she translated. "Heh. Cando says that the other option is eating him."

Justin gulped a bit, especially when noticing the short yet obviously furious white male smirking at him and getting very close to his legs... more like, Justin HOPED the wolf was JUST after his legs.

"Uh... eh... look, it's true we humans kill each other at times, but even among us, that's a horrible thing... and I'd hate if any of you kill him." Tabias, realizing Cando wasn't kidding, tried to stop the wolves from using this 'option' that they obviously didn't mind that much. "Besides... well, as much as I hate to admit this... I can't let you kill someone from my family."

"Your family?" Candy gasped while the other wolves turned at him, Justin looking quite relieved that Cando was no longer paying attention to him.

"Yes, you see … he's my brother in law." Tabias sighed.

"Really?" Candy then looked again at Justin, who was now nodding at this, and then looked back at Tabias. "Gee, what did your sister see in him?"

"Great, now I'm getting criticized by a beast..." Justin, again, gulped when most of the wolves growled at him after he said that. "A very smart one, of course."

"Justin... you defend yourself much better when you're quiet." Tabias frowned at him. "Seriously, what's next? Standing in front of a guy with a machine gun and start insulting his mother?"

"No idea what's a machine gun, but since it has 'gun' in the name, I guess it's something VERY nasty." Kate frowned a bit yet grinned at the idea of Justin doing that; she then shook her head. "Okay, playtime is over. If we can't cage this guy, and killing him is out of the question, guess our best choice would be keeping him prisoner here at the forest. He wouldn't be caged, but he wouldn't be allowed to be on his own at any time."

"So, now my jailers will be the wolves... great, these guys have a thing for irony." Justin groaned. "Look, how about... I help you all with this thing? It's obvious I know about the formula, and I wanna be there when my sisters get healed."

"Okay, he has a point there..." Kate said before frowning at Justin. "But the moment you betray us, or if you tell the other humans about us... mmm... what's that thing you humans eat that much... oh, right; the moment you betray us, Cando eats Justin-Burgers!"

Cando grinned at this; he didn't know what a 'burger' was, but he was more than ready to cooperate after hearing the phrase 'Cando eats Justin'.

"Okaaaaay... if you wolves stop talking about making me the main part of a nutritious breakfast... you have a deal." Justin nodded at Kate before pointing at Cando. "But keep him away from me."

"Deal... except for the last part; can't make promises about Cando." Kate smirked at this. It was good that Justin was agreeing to help them, but it didn't hurt to keep him a bit scared, so he wouldn't think about betraying them.

A while later, the 2 humans were escorted to an old den; unknown to them both, this den wasn't that far from the wolves' main living quarters but wasn't that close either. The den was large enough for a man to use as a camp tent, even if, obviously, not very comfortable; the wolves had decided Justin would stay here while they decided on a permanent, non-lethal way to deal with him; not close enough for him to know where the wolves normally resided in case he betrayed them, "yet also not that far so the pack could keep an eye on him without needing to travel a long distance.

"So, basically, now I'll be, literally, living like an animal." Justin groaned while entering the den to check it out.

"You just don't know when it's a good time to stay quiet, don't you?" Kate, who had entered the den too (more precisely, her head and neck had entered, as she was stretching a bit so she didn't need to get her whole body inside), frowned at Justin. The man sighed, realizing he was being offensive again.

"_Now I know what Charlton Heston felt like in the Planet of The Apes." _Justin thought, groaning.

"Fine. The place is comfortable enough, I guess."

"Hey, it's much better than a cage." Kate pointed out. Then, she and Justin exited the den and joined Tabias and the rest of the wolves, so the scientist could start informing them about the facilities where Crystal and Gem were being held.

"The main problem will be the alarms around the building. They activate whenever someone enters its range of coverage... "Tabias stopped when noticing the wolves' stares. "It means, if you get close to them, they activate."

"How 'close' do you have to get to them to activate them?" Lilly asked.

"It doesn't really matter because there are several around. If you set a foot, or paw, around the building..." Tabias was interrupted by Lilly again.

"Then, we have to make a bridge so we can reach the building from a safe distance without touching the ground, isn't it?" Lilly illustrated her point by stretching herself a bit and forming a short yet resistant bridge with her body.

"That can work." Tabias admitted. "You have to start the bridge at least 50 feet away from the building..."

"Feet? How much is that in 'Paws'?" Candy asked.

"Mmm... more or less something like this." Tabias used his hands to illustrate the approximate length he was talking about. "And the bridge must end right at the building, not even one foot away from it, to be sure you're out of the alarms' range."

The other wolves nodded in understanding. If the Elastic Wolves could make strong enough bridges, the other wolves wouldn't have a problem to enter as well.

"Once you get there, you must pass the surveillance cameras." Tabias explained the places where the cameras were most likely set up (even he admitted that he wasn't entirely sure since the security devices were regularly upgraded or modified), and explained how they could get deactivated or, more precisely, how they could get temporarily off so the wolves could pass. The on-off thing had to be done very fast so the guards didn't notice. Austin and Casey, with their invisibility, were the best option for this part of the mission, since the cameras wouldn't be able to detect them and therefore they had the most time to do this and avoid any human guard around the cameras at that time; the only problem was that they lacked the dexterity of the elastic canines, since they had normal paws that couldn't morph into hand-likes, so Tabias had to teach them how to mess up with the cameras by using only their teeth and paws.

"Now, once we get Crystal and Gem out, where are we taking them? Here at the forest or at the lab?" Lilly asked Tabias while pointing at Garth. "His question, not mine, but I agree. Heh, it's fun to work as a translator."

"Mmm... well, we need to combine the formulas and then add a sample of Crystal and Gem's blood in order to create the antidote... or more precisely, enhance their powers to the point they can control themselves and communicate on a human level." Tabias thought out loud. "That means we need to go to the lab... but it can be a problem since, obviously, by this point, everyone knows I was 'abducted' by you wolves and the labs must be heavily guarded... luckily, I have samples of the Animality formula at home plus now we have some of the formula that Justin stole... guess we can go to my place. I have a little lab there, and we can combine both formulas there."

"And by 'we', you mean, yourself and...?" Candy arched an eyebrow. Even the wolves admitted that none of them had the necessary experience and knowledge to help Tabias at the lab.

"Justin." Tabias sighed. "He has the abilities and knowledge to help me with the formula, especially considering he had messed up with the Elasticity one so he knows it perfectly. Plus, if he made any change on it, I'll need his assistance to adjust the dose and make a proper mix."

Cando said something that Sweets translated for the humans.

"He says that he's gonna stay at the lab with you to keep an eye on Justin, just in case."

"Talk about having a fierce parole officer." Justin groaned yet nodded. Everyone else agreed on having a few wolves with the scientists both to keep Justin in line and to protect them in case someone decided to look for them at Tabias' place. After all, right now, Justin was still a fugitive that had stolen important formulas and equipment, and Tabias was a 'missing person', meaning there would be people looking for them both.

After working on a few other details, Tabias and Justin went to the house, with Humphrey, Garth, Cando, Hutch, Shakey, Salty and Mooch as their escorts/bodyguards/jailers (the latter mostly in Justin's case) while the others went to the facilities where Gem and Crystal were being held, the Elastic Wolves using their powers, namely enlarging themselves and getting longer limbs, to both carry their companions and travel faster.

The building was quite large, and, just like the one where Kate, Lilly and the Invisible Pair had been held for a while, it was located in a forest area, but this one wasn't that far from the city; this was good for the wolves since it meant they only had to travel a short distance to meet up with Tabias and Justin after the rescue, but it was also a possible problem if they were spotted before time, because it meant the guards could get back-up almost immediately, both from the government's other guards and from the local police.

Once they located the right place to enter, according to their previous planning, Kate and Lilly stretched themselves to form a bridge from the forest to the lab's back entrance, being very careful to avoid touching the ground aka the motion and pressure sensors. Candy and Sweets used the bridge to pass both themselves and the other wolves assisting in the rescue, and once in front of the door, Kate entered the password that Tabias gave them; since Candy and Sweets had never been in a lab, and the Invisible Pair having no thumbs, only Kate and Lilly were both knowledgeable about human numbers and capable of punching the control panel's keys... and even if Lilly had proved not being a moron, Kate was definitely superior when it came to formal education.

Once inside, Austin and Casey turned invisible and walked in front of the other wolves, warning them about the human guards and the security cameras. Once finding another control panel, the Invisible Pair messed up with the wires just like Tabias told them, and soon all the cameras were working at half capacity, meaning they didn't move properly and had minor fails every few seconds, nothing too noticeable, just enough for the non-invisible wolves to avoid detection.

"Heh, this is like Hide and Seek, but with better rules." Candy giggled while morphing into a snake-like shape to avoid a camera.

"Yes, a game where you get shot if they spot you." Sweets whispered at her, all the Elastic Wolves turning themselves overly flat to hide from some walking guards. Austin and Casey, still invisible, returned from their scouting and whispered at the elastic wolves.

"We found those two wolf-likes." Austin said. "They're two floors down from here."

"Yes, and it seems they got better security." Casey added. "We saw five guards there."

"We'll need to subdue them quick and in silence." Kate whispered back while looking at a clock in a nearby wall. "According to Tabias, the guards change shifts every couple of hours... so we only have... 20 minutes before the next shift."

A few minutes later, all the wolves were down at the containment level, and like the Invisible Pair said, there were 5 guards in front of the cell. The elastic wolves pounced on them, and wrapped their bodies around the men's heads, cutting their breathing, and they all fainted due to lack of oxygen after a few seconds.

"Casey, Austin, go to the stairway and tell us if another human comes." Kate said to the Invisible Pair before turning at Candy and Sweets. "You two stay here and guard the sleeping ones. Lilly and I will handle the wolf-likes... and if we need help, we'll call you."

"Any special signal for that?" Sweets asked.

"Yes. I'll be yelling something among the lines of 'Help! I need somebody's help! Not just anybody's help!', over and over again, and in a very scary tone." Lilly said in her usual 'I don't know if she's serious' tone.

Kate and Lilly opened the cell's door, closing it behind them just in case Gem and Crystal couldn't contain their wild side and decide to feast on the fallen humans. The first they heard when entering was a growling, menacing tone.

"Whose there?" A strange voice called out.

"Okay, good news; they speak normal Canine." Kate whispered at Lilly.

"Yes, but all humans speak Human and they still kill each other." Lilly gulped.

The two wolf-like women stood in front of Kate and Lilly; as Tabias and Justin described them, one with white fur and black marks and the other with the inverse color pattern; plus, they both were wearing a sleeveless gray shirt with dark gray shorts. Physically, they looked a lot like the Elastic Wolves when turning into muscular anthros, but their fur was considerably messier, and their stance was definitely a threatening one. If this is how humans looked at Kate and Lilly when they turned anthro, there was no doubt now about why Tabias and Justin was so eager to cooperate whenever the Elastic Wolves used this shape to threaten them.

"Listen... we come in peace..." Kate got a non-threatening stance yet remained alert in case Gem and Crystal decided to get dangerous.

"And we don't wanna leave in pieces."

"Lilly..." Kate groaned but then, surprisingly, the large wolf-likes started laughing.

"Heh... ages without hearing a joke." The black one said, her stance changing considerably to a more relaxed one.

"Who was joking?" Lilly whispered at Kate, who just nodded at her; Lilly understood immediately what she meant and then talked in a more normal tone. "Oh, yes, that was a joke! You know, just to break the ice... even if we have no ice here; seriously, what's with humans and their tendency to break everything?"

Now the other wolf-like was chuckling a bit too.

"Wait... you said... 'what with humans'... you mean, you're not transformed humans like us?" The white wolf-like asked.

"No, we're transformed wolves; Dr Tabias had been a busy guy." Kate informed them; both wolf-likes gasped at this.

"Doctor Tabias... you mean... G-Gabriel?" The White one asked.

"Yes. You must be Crystal, right?" Kate pointed out. When the White creature nodded, Kate continued. "Your husband and brother had been working in their Shape-Shifting and Elasticity formula... of course, we like the results, but we're still a bit resentful about being forced to take the formula in first place."

"You might be very smart as a species, but would it kill you people to say 'Please' and 'Thank You' once in a while? Specially if you're gonna mess with another species." Lilly pointed out.

"J-Justin... and Gabriel... they're both here?" The Black creature, Gem, asked.

"No, they're at Gabriel's house, mixing up both your Animality formula and their Elasticity one." Kate explained. "But it seems this is against Human Laws, so we have to leave this place without anyone finding out."

"Hey, if we can get out of this place, count us in." Crystal pointed out while Gem nodded.

"Wait, you said they're mixing formulas... you mean they can turn us back to our human forms?" Gem asked.

"Not exactly, but the mix will make you capable of shape-shifting into a Human-Like shape so you two can finally talk Human again, and interact with other people and animals without making them your meal." Kate explained.

"Hey, those inside, can you hurry up?" Everyone turned when hearing Candy's voice. "I think that human thing called 'Coffee Break' is about to end any time now, and the next guards will be here soon."

"She's right. Okay, let's get out of here. And remember, try not killing any human once we start running out of here." Kate said to Crystal and Gem, both of them nodding at this.

A minute later, the wolf-likes and all the wolves were at the stairway.

Two minutes later, they were fighting off several guards; obviously, Crystal and Gem were just too big to leave stealthy, and now they were all making their escape the hard way. Since the guards had weaponry adapted to subdue large anthros, Gem and Crystal would be into trouble if they were on their own, but, luckily, with Austin and Casey attacking the guards before they could shoot at the others and making the humans drop their guns due to the surprise attack, the men were no match for the retreating wolves and wolf-likes. Soon, they were out of the facilities and making their way through the forest; as planned, they wouldn't go directly to Gabriel's house, in case the guards could track them down, so they took the longest path, using natural obstacles like rocks and fallen trees to make it even harder for any chaser.

While all this happened, Justin and Gabriel were busy working in the lab at Gabriel's place, with the wolves around them, keeping an eye on the humans at all times... specially on Justin.

"We need to set some ground rules here." Justin groaned while walking out of the bathroom, with Cando behind him. "It's bad enough he follows me everywhere, even THERE, but growling at me when I'm... doing that?"

"He probably dislikes the fact you're contaminating a clean water source." Gabriel grinned while Justin groaned.

"Okay, that's another rule... no drinking from the toilet!" Justin frowned.

"Gee, he should have said that ten minutes ago." Humphrey rolled his eyes. Of course, none of the humans got this and they continued working.

"Okay... I think the formula is ready. Now, we only need a sample from both Crystal and Gem's blood."

Justin and Gabriel turned when hearing a soft howling; all the wolves turned as well.

"Speak of the devil..." Justin sighed and opened the basement's door, one that lead to the backyard. Gabriel followed after him, and they both gasped when seeing Crystal and Gem entering the backyard, with the Elastic and Invisible (visible at the time) wolves behind them.

"C-Crystal..." Gabriel approached his wife.

"G-Gem..." Justin, hesitantly, approached Gem as well.

Both Gem and Crystal, very slowly (so they wouldn't be so scary for a human), approached them as well, and then hugged the men, softly and tenderly. The wolves surrounded them, smiling at the scene.

"I might be wrong, but I think this is something we don't need to translate for the guys." Lilly smiled.

"Gabriel, Justin, I hate to be the one ruining the moment, but you need to hear this." Kate said to the men, making them to separate a bit from their wives. "Gem and Crystal are a bit calmer now so they can get what you two say, but they still have some problems holding back their predatory instincts."

"True that." Candy then frowned at Gem. "I think you enjoyed a bit TOO MUCH when you bite that guard's butt."

"Hey, I was hungry... and compared with the stuff they fed us with at that place, a human butt was as tasty as bacon." Gem shrugged, but, since she still talked Canine only, neither Justin nor Gabriel got it.

"What did she said?" Justin asked the Elastic Wolves.

"That your butts taste like bacon." Lilly smiled.

Justin and Gabriel, out of instinct, covered their butts with both hands.

"Anyway, they're holding back their instincts right now, but, to play it safe, avoid sudden moves, try not using loud voices, and... seriously, stop touching your own butts." Kate frowned at the men, who nodded and obeyed. "Now, let's get into your house before another human finds out the neighbor has a pack visiting his place and that two of the wolves are the size of bears."

Everyone obeyed Kate, and soon Gabriel and Justin were taking blood samples from Crystal and Gem. While Justin made some preliminary tests, Gabriel handed Crystal and Gem a pair of hyper-adaptable suits, the same type the Elastic Wolves used, since, once getting that power, the normal clothing wouldn't stand the shape-shifting and stretching; luckily, Gabriel kept some of these suits at home from the times he brought his job here. Also, Kate, Lilly, Candy and Sweets started giving them pointers about how to use their powers once getting them.

Finally, after almost one hour of testing the formulas in cell samples, Justin and Gabriel felt confident enough to inject it in Crystal and Gem's system. Everyone looked in awe as the wolf-likes started shrinking to a normal human size and their fur became a lot less messier; after a few minutes, they looked like a non-fierce, less menacing version of themselves, with noticeable human features, and their throats were now close enough to human to allow normal speech.

"Hi, Justin." Gem smiled at her brother, who trembled when finally hearing her normal human voice after a very long time. He didn't care if she still looked half-canine; the man practically pounced on her for a tight hug.

"No hug for me?" Crystal smiled at him too, and the siblings got together in a collective hug before Crystal turned at Gabriel. "You did it again, Gabe."

"I don't care if I never do it again... as long as you're here." Gabriel smiled lovingly at her before realizing what he had said. "Wait... 'never do it again'... that didn't sound good."

"You and your silly mistakes." Crystal laughed, the sound of it melting Gabriel on the inside, and then they practically pounced on each other for a long, loving kiss; he didn't care at all that she still was half canine.

"Wonder if he'd still be so eager to kiss her if knowing we had to make a stop at a bus station's bathroom so she could take a drink." Lilly grinned at Candy and Sweets, the three of them laughing while Kate just rolled her eyes.

"Good thing you said that in Canine." Kate finally chuckled and joined the other wolves at witnessing the very touching moment.


End file.
